Death Comes to Beacon
by The Powder Keg
Summary: Death has come to Beacon. Except he isn't the one that reaps you. He's an ancient creature of darkness, older than death or the Grimm. And when something as old and powerful gets bored, things are sure to take a turn. Let's see how Beacon fairs against him, shall we? Not for faint of heart, meant for those with a darker sense of humor.
1. Chapter 1

" **D" P.O.V.** As I sat upon the Bullhead silently, listening to the bustle of students talking and preparing for the year, I chuckled at the aspects of the fun I would be able to have. You see, I had been bored for years now, and tormenting nearby humans that happened upon me was no longer as entertaining as it used to be.

The Idea though! I thought if I could integrate into the humans society, I would have options for as long as I could keep up the charade. Yes, variety is what I sought after. The need for variety made me weave this costume from shadows themselves and learn the human language in all of it's useless details. It is the need for variety that made me tear historical knowledge out of at least a dozen passerby's so that I would seem inconspicuous. It is this need, that put me on this ship.

Which has brought me to my current predicament. In my excitement to stave off boredom, I had neglected to give myself a proper name. This was a large problem, because I knew that the second I got into this school, roll call would be done. I could slip past not being on a list, but I had to be someone. But who?

"Mind if we sit here?" A female voice asked me. I looked upwards to see a young girl clad in a red cloak and a black outfit, with far to many buckles. On her left was an older blonde with absurdly long hair, golden bracelets, and an orange scarf. Her outfit matched the color scheme well, and judging by the look on her face, she was the one who had spoken.

"Be my guest." I said clearly, moving slightly to the side and allowing them room. I had to keep up the illusion that I was in fact, a normal person. They obliged and sat down in the seats next to me, and began talking. By listening quietly I was able to make out that the two were sisters. A shocker, I know. I was surprised too.

I lost interest in the conversation soon after that, returning to the issue at hand, my name. A name made the man, and my disguise was incomplete without one. It was the last piece, but I couldn't find the right fit.

"What's your name, stranger?" The blonde girl asked me. Damn it. I don't understand why she wanted to know about me. She was just caught up with her sister only a moment ago. It doesn't matter, Iv'e got to think of something fast.

"Darren. Darren West." I replied, satisfied with the name while also noting that I had just cemented my identity. No matter. I was in the conversation now.

"What weapon do you have?" The smaller one in red asked shyly. Now that was something easy. Standing up, I reached over my shoulder to the handle of my blade. An abyssal-black blade covered in white scratches and sigils slipped from a worn leather sheath. With a staggering 3-foot long blade that was six inches in width, and one inch thick. The blade did not taper to a point like most, and instead looked like a guillotine on the front. I was certainly imposing as I held the blade in one hand.

The one in red looked both shocked, impressed, and strangely excited all at the same time as she jumped up to get a closer look at the blade. "May I?" She asked, I held the leather hilt out with a wrought-iron grip and guard. She grabbed it and I let go. Almost immediately she fell to the ground as she struggled to hold the weight of the blade with both hands.

"Wow that's *urghh* heavy." She said, moving the blade and resting the flat of it on her shoulder, which did not work well as her small frame did not provide enough space to hold it properly. Once stable, for the moment, she began to examine the blade, even propping it on her elbow in order to feel the metal, which her hand recoiled from instantly.

"It's cold." She said, her hand returning to the smooth yet marred surface to the blade. Each of the hundreds of white lines and scratches were deep enough to fit a fingernail into. I would know, I put them there.

 **Ruby P.O.V** I asked the guy if I could examine his weapon, and the second I held it I realized I had made a mistake. Dropping nearly to my knees, I struggled to stay standing under the weight of it. I was amazed he could even hold it in one hand, let alone use it.

"Wow that's *urghh* heavy." I said. It took a lot of effort to stand back up straight, but I managed it. Even more difficult was holding it in one arm so I could feel the metal. It dipped backwards as I balanced it, and I head Yang duck. My shoulder was starting to get cold, but I ignored it as I raised my hand.

Yikes! It was freezing to the touch.

"It's cold." I said quietly. Metal was always a little cold to the touch, but it shouldn't be ice-cold. Frankly it unnerved me a bit, but I distracted myself by looking at the etches across the surface, each one of which I could dig a fingernail into. I swore some of them looked like letters, but none I could read. "What are these lines?" I asked.

He grinned a bit, looking more than a little scary with his both pale and dark complexion, and black leather overcoat with a hood. His eyes seemed to flash red a little while the whites became more pronounced. "Names." Darren said, still smiling.

"What names?" I heard Yang ask. Darren actually started laughing at this, and I decided to leave the question alone. My arms were also starting to hurt from holding this thing, so I handed the weapon back to him. Asking the name of it.

 **Darren/Death P.O.V.** I was still chuckling at her question of what exactly the names were. Most people wouldn't find it funny, but I did. You see, I quenched the blade in blood, and each of the etched names were those whose blood I drained to do so. Still laughing in my head, I almost missed her last question.

"What's the name of your weapon?" She asked. I smiled even wider, she was asking all the right questions. "It doesn't have one." I said, a little sinister. She asked me why.

"None of them took." And with that, I sheathed my unnamed weapon with ease, and sat back down silently. Both of the sisters each gave me a strange look, but then they walked off. I looked around, and noticed that everyone else had gathered to a certain part of the ship, in which the hologram of a Middle-Aged blonde woman with a white button-up shirt stood, holding a wand/riding crop in her hand. She pushed her glasses up before she began speaking. I didn't listen.

Something else garnered my attention more than this speech ever would. The sight of a large building suspended upon cliffs caught my view. Beacon Academy, in all of its pride and glory, stood before me. I outright laughed as I gazed upon the complex and strong building. The sight of many Bullheads full of soon-to-be hunters and huntresses made me grin wider.

This place would burn.

 **Hey everyone, before you say anything, I am very aware that Volume 5 just started and that no one really cares about fan fiction right now, but I liked this idea anyway. I can only hope that everyone is interested in the story and waiting for more.**

 **On note though, any words written in BOLD are either Labels for POV or are words spoken by Darren/Death with a very sinister tone, and usually has a heavy mental effect from the tone that he uses.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm glad about the immediate reviews, which is my favorite part of writing. That and the ability to jump into another universe. Both of those together is just plane fun.**

 **As the story progresses and you get ideas about how things will come to pass, please feel free to inform me of them. You never know if I might use one.**

 **Other than that, Let's continue.**

 **Darren P.O.V**

Stepping off of the aircraft, I vaguely noted a boy in white armor clutching his mouth in one hand and stomach in the other. I say vaguely because I was much more interested in the air around me. Beacon and its grounds held a power to them. I knelt to the ground and placed my hand upon the cemented path, letting my mind expand.

Past the haze of control and security that Beacon was, brief images flashed through my mind, letting me understand some of its history. Towers being built just as the dust of war settled, hunters closing and guarding old gates, the activation of the worldwide CCT. Above it all though, was a man. One man, with just a few thousand too many souls.

I opened my eyes and stood up, not caring if I was just in someone's way or not. Looking forwards I saw the main building of Beacon, which every other student who knew their way was going. It was as good a place as any to start, and so I followed the tide of bodies, ignoring the small explosion that rumbled the ground. I assumed it was simply a commodity at Beacon.

The walk to the main building was a longer one, but full of sights. The large aqueducts and archways that spanned the entirety of the grounds were truly monuments of engineering. The large spires of Beacon itself jutted into the sky nicely, all overlooked by a large tower that wasn't the CCT.

One could only wonder who lived up there. Except me. I knew it was the Headmaster of this school. Who else would have that position? I liked the height of it though. It would give me a good lay of the land and a hiding place if I wanted. Mentally I bookmarked that.

In just under twenty minutes of walking, I and everyone else were standing inside the building. Most of the students were looking up at the stage expectantly. I was simply looking for a quiet place to stand, or perhaps lean against a wall, when I heard a shrill and angry voice yelling.

"YOU!"

"Oh god, it's happening again!" A second voice said in slight despair, and I caught a fast motion in that direction. Looking over I saw the red girl from the plane laying in her sister's arms, both looking at none other than a Schnee. I thought this might be entertaining, and I walked over.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff." She said angrily. Just after, the one with yellow hair looked down at her sister in shock.

"Oh my god you really exploded." She said in a monotone voice. I simply leaned against a nearby wall, listening to the three bicker for a bit. Facts, poorly hidden insults, and apologies were thrown around. As well as a large amount of sarcasm. I did however learn that the Schnee was Weiss, and the one in red was Ruby. Names were important in a way.

 _ **(Insert painful microphone noise)**_

"I'll... Keep this brief." The man on the stage kept his promise, talking only for a minute or two. I didn't listen, focused more on the fact that the air around him matched the feeling of the man that had many souls. Mentally bookmarking that with a higher importance, I tuned in to the blonde now speaking after the older man, who I could assume was Headmaster Ozpin.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." I clapped three times in appreciation of someone who could keep something so important so brief. Anyone else would have drawn that out for ten minutes or more. I got a strange look or two.

"He seemed... Kind of off." I heard the yellow one say, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Ruby said. Annoyingly then, the blonde boy in white armor butted in, saying something about his hair. I took that as the universe saying there was nothing else important to happen, and left. It appeared we had until tonight to gather, and so I had some time to waste. Unlike any other teenager however, I had no people here to talk with, and no want to see any parts of the building.

The entire building was built upon incredibly large cliffs that overlooked a large forest. The Emerald Forest to be precise. I knew the forest was infested with Grimm, that much was sure. By common sense, I could assume the forest was kept at a reasonable Grimm population, and that the older creatures were hunted down for safety reasons.

That didn't matter to me though, it was still a way to pass the time. I looked around to make sure nobody was looking, and took a flying leap off the side of the cliff. And I began falling, _fast._ Using some of my power, I expanded my leather cloak and stiffened it, turning my fall into a steep glide. Flying was fun, especially when you see a small Nevermore just _asking_ to have its head removed.

Another bit of my power and a summoned blade later, the head of the Grimm bird was now in one of my hands, and the sword in the other. Now the question was, What can I do with this?

Still falling/gliding down at a semi-dangerous speed, I looked around for a Grimm with a reasonable size. My eyes laid upon the lumbering forms of multiple Ursai. How fun. I moved my arms and turned into their area, flattening out my curve until I was horizontal in flight and about ten feet off the ground.

I would like to think the Ursa had a moment to think about its life and what it had done before I barreled into it at an easy 80mph with my shoulder covered in a metal hard shield of power. My momentum carried it with me into a nearby tree and broke its spine. I know this from the audible *Crack* I heard.

The rest of the Ursai looked over at me in mild confusion as I climbed out of the corpse of the Ursa I killed. Quickly they shook off their confusion and charged me. Three of them in a semi-circle cornering me. This was gonna be good.

I summoned a dark-black and slightly translucent short-sword in my right hand and back-flipped, planting my feet onto the tree behind me and pushing off of its trunk. I blew past the group of Ursai between number 2 and 3's heads and rolling to a stop, smiling. Ursa 1 and 3 turned to me, while Ursa 2's head fell off and its body collapsed into the soil, bleeding black into the green grass.

Before they could even begin to advance on me, two throwing knives appeared inside Ursa 1's neck, just missing the windpipe. On purpose of course. It was meant as a distraction. And a distraction it was as the bear struggled to remove the knives as I charged at Ursa 2 wickedly.

With whatever instincts the creature had, its raised its arms. I'm still not sure if that is a good or bad thing, as it didn't die instantly. It was however, disarmed in the most literal of sense of the word. Then I buried my blade into its sternum, before turning and ripping it out sideways.

I turned back the the last Ursa, switching my sword into a hammer with a long handle, but a smaller head. It appeared that the Ursa had managed to claw the knifes away from its throat, judging by the two bleeding holes in its neck. Red eyes glowing with anger, the beast charged me. I let it.

When the Ursa was just a few feet away from me, I raised my hammer and swung sideways, putting some actual force into it. The head of the hammer connected with the Ursa's side, sending it twenty feet to the right and into a tree, felling the large oak. I was on it in an instant, raising my hammer once more, and crushing its skull like a watermelon.

I continued hunting Grimm with ease for the next few hours, before the sun began to set. I had to return and get to the Ballroom or people would start to look for me. It would be easier to just follow rules, for now.

The cliff wasn't a problem as I summoned pickaxes to pull me up the cliff-face and onto school grounds. It took me an hour of climbing, but only because I took my time with it. The Ballroom was easy to find thanks to the many maps posted around the grounds. As the sun finally fell, I walked into the Ballroom.

There was nobody awake and everything was dark, except for one candle. While I could see well in the dark, the candle illuminated the figure of a cat faunus, her heritage poorly hidden by a bow, and she was reading a book. "Twin Humanity", one of my personal favorites.

Deciding to do a bit of information searching, I forced light to bend around me, cloaking me inside a pitch black aura. I strode forwards, my footsteps silenced by night, and came closer to the faunus girl. Her amber eyes were punctuated heavily by her pale skin and dark hair, but it was a good contrast. Other than her appearance though, I knew nothing about her.

Using one of my older tricks, I knelt down next to her without her noticing. The only indication she gave was looking at her candle odd when it dimmed some. Closing my eyes again, I raised my hand towards her, feeling for her aura. If one could see it, they would find dark tendrils spread into her aura until they reached her, and she shivered as if cold.

ignoring any parts about her identity, I reached for her name as she rubbed her arms, trying to warm up because her aura _thought_ she was cold. It didn't take long for me to pull her name into my own mind, and retract my own ice cold, black power from her aura. _"Blake Belladonna"_

I did the same thing to the yellow girl who was Ruby's sister, as well as Ruby herself. The blonde boy also deserved my interest. Each of them shivered, that is, accept the blonde one. Yang Xiao Long was her name. This confused me as I found Ruby's last name to be Rose. And the boy, why I didn't know I'd have the chance to torment and Arc.

Satisfied that I had grabbed the names of everyone important I sat down next to the Blake, and allowed myself to come into visibility. She didn't notice me at first, and so I left it that way, seeing how long it would take.

There were a few thick strips of leather across my body that held some of my meager belongings. Seven throwing knives, which I quietly set on the floor, a vial of Grimm Blood, which is worth a fortune to any scientist. A vial of Human blood, though this time in an iron container. Some inch-thick whetstone sharpening blocks that were small enough to carry six of them with ease.

The final straw for Blake to notice me was my taking off my true sword, and laying it on the ground. I chuckled at the silent gasp she gave upon realizing I was there.

"How long have you been sitting here?" She whispered to me. I looked at her, smiling wickedly.

"I've only been sitting here for a bit, but I've been walking around for about twenty minutes." She glared at me, obviously not believing me.

"I doubt that. I have very good sight and hearing." I nodded, about to have a little more fun.

"I'm sure you do, being a cat faunus." Her calm eyes immediately widened in slight fear and her voice became apprehensive.

"How... Do you know that?" She asked me.

"One, you just told me," to that she slapped her own forehead.

"Second, you might want to pick something that doesn't _literally look like a cat._ " She actually chuckled a bit to that.

"You've got me there, but it isn't as easy as that. Any hat I wear would fall off. Not to mention the fact that this bow is the only thing that isn't unbearably uncomfortable. Imagine constantly having your ears folded and taped down."

I nodded again. Most people would call me talking with her being nice, but I was simply making myself seem less suspicious. The more people that liked me, the less fingers would point at me when something strange happened. Therefore, I could enjoy this longer.

"Hey, if you would, keep my being a faunus between us." She said.

"Why not. I haven't got anything to gain from telling your secret around. So I won't."

"Thanks." She told me, smiling a little easier now. But her being calm was boring. Time for a trick! I stood up, leaving my items where they were. I doubt anyone would be able to take the sword without making a lot of noise, and who was gonna steal a whetstone?

"Well Blake, if you don't mind, that window over there is just _begging_ to be jumped out of, and I'm a good sport. So I'll see you in initiation." I started walking towards the window and slowly gaining speed, listening to her stutter out an answer.

"I never told yo- Wait, what?" She asked as I began full out running at the window, stepping over sleeping bodies as to leave everything silent. When I reached the window I jumped feet going first. My body then phased through the glass, while my fingertips caught the edge of the windowsill outside, catapulting me upwards and onto the roof with a perfect back-flip.

Then I laughed, thinking about the kind of confusion I just left her with. And this was only the beginning!

 **Hey there. I just wanted to clear something up before someone calls me lazy by giving Darren/Death powers to fit the situation.**

 **I want you to notice that when talking about Darren, I say "Power" and anyone else, I say "Aura", save for when aura - lowercase "a" - is the correct word.**

 **I do this for a reason. Darren is not a human, but he has been around long enough to easily copy aura itself, and the semblances of many hunters. He has an armory of different semblances at his disposal, mostly because he likes being "Creative" in the way he kills people.**

 **As always, any questions or ideas you have for the story so far, review or PM them to me and I'll respond any way I can without spoiling it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Longer wait, longer chapter. It's only fair. Other than that, I have two things to say. One, thank you for the amount of reviews I have gotten in just two chapters. That really is my favorite part of writing these stories.**

 **Secondly - To JohnCena117, Darren is no longer going to be 'edgy'. And by that I mean the 2016 definition of edgy. Now Darren is switching more towards being sadistic and malicious, looking to physically harm or even maim.**

 **Darren/Death P.O.V**

These locker rooms were all but useless. Anyone smart would be carrying their equipment on them, not in some container. At least his Jaune guy had some sense in him. He woke up armored and armed. "RIDICULOUS!" He shouted, frantically looking around and at a paper. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 363 yesterday. I would have remembered having to count that high."

Never-mind, he was just dim. Or maybe freaking out. Probably both. I kept walking through the locker room, passing by Weiss Schnee talking to some red-head. It didn't matter though. I wanted a headsta-. And I backtracked immediately. That red-head was Pyrrha Nikos. Now _that_ changed the game a bit. If I was going to break anybody, it was going to be the champion herself.

I stood there thinking about why she would be here if she was already a renowned fighter in inter-kingdom championships. Was there some sort of licensing to be a Hunter that I wasn't aware of? Maybe it was just another title to add onto her list.

"AHHhhh!" A blonde kid flew past me attached to a red and yellow spear, which promptly stuck into the locker, effectively pinning him. I walked over to him, leaning down slightly and chuckling. "Who'd you piss off?" Jaune simply hung there dejectedly before crossing his arms. "I bet you think it's real funny, huh?"

I pulled the spear out of the wall, letting Jaune fall to the ground with a startled yelp, and examined it The entirety of the blade had etches in it and the bottom half of the handle seemed to be the stock of a rifle. I also noted the handle being hollow. Was this one of their famous transforming weapons?

"Excuse me. I think that's mine." Someone said to me. I turned around to see Pyrrha holding out her hand politely. Wondering why she was being so nice about this, I handed her the spear. "Thank you. I'm sorry." She said the first to me and the second to Jaune, who was still sitting on the floor.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?" Ooh, the cliff. Me and that spot already had some fun times together. I walked out of the building as Ruby and Yang helped Jaune up. Once leaving the actual building, I began a brisk run towards the cliff, not wanting to waste anymore time.

* * *

The first person you make eye-contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Simultaneously everyone started worrying and talking, asking questions at random. Me, I liked it. I got my pick on who to torment. Of course then I'd be more or less stuck with them after. "I wondered what would happen If I never made eye-contact. Reaching into one of my coat pockets, I secretly weaved a piece of shadow before placing it over my eyes, and allowing my vision to go dark.

"Um, Darren is it. Are you certain that is the best course of action." Without turning my head, I used a weak pulse of my power reserve to get the shape of the world around me. Ozpin was looking at me strangely. "Without a doubt." I responded. Sighing, the old man continued his instructions. Most of it was just warnings about Grimm, which I ignored. The only thing I actually caught was what we we're doing. Kill Grimm, collect statue, come back. Don't die.

That seemed easy enough. Apparently the idea was not shared though as that Jaune Arc asked numerous annoying questions about how to land, whilst students were literately being catapulted off the cliff. The person next to me, an armored guy with brown hair, launched off and I tensed my legs, readying. The spring-board beneath me came to life and with a rush of G-force and wind, I was now many hundreds of feet into the air.

Expanding my leather coat like I did last night, I began to glide. After only a few moments, everyone had reached the ground except for me and one other person. That blond girl, Yang, was riding explosions across the tops of the trees. She was actually going faster than me. I couldn't have that, and so I closed my false-wings and fell vertical.

Only feet from the treetops, I opened again and the wall of air beneath me broke branches as I rapidly accelerated, now gaining speed on the aura signature that was Yang. Twenty seconds and I was now gliding next to her. Sending out a pulse of aura, I noticed she was now looking at me.

"Hey, guess what?" I yelled at her. Before she got the chance to answer, I smashed into her side, sending her careening into the forest floor below. She would probably be angry about that later, but I couldn't be bothered at the moment. I was setting records here!

I kept my "eyes" peeled for any kind of man-made structure out in the woods, sending out pulsations of power on a frequent base. You see, every time you touch something, some of your aura is rubbed off on it. If one man owns a house and lives in it, that entire house would faintly glow in his color, to those that knew how to see it of course.

A series of faint, very rapid gunshots found my attention and I scanned the ground under me. A boy dressed in green but with a purple aura was fighting a massive snake. A King Taijitu. Good luck. Those were some of the nastiest Grimm you could come across. Judging by the size of it, this one was old too. I left him.

It couldn't be much further to the temple, surely. After all, I had been gliding at a speed of somewhere close to 50 mph. Perhaps I missed it. It could have easily been covered by the thicker canopy of trees. I guess it was time to land. Near that circle of Beowolves might not be a bad idea.

Slamming gracefully and silently into a tree, I sensed that within the large circle of wolf Grimm, Weiss Schnee was standing in a textbook stance, revised to the last degree of the elbow. Such teachings were a waste of time in my opinion. Skill was important, but over-training led to overthinking and over-reliance on that training. Many a Hunter had fallen to my blade simply because I knew the counter to their teachings, and they could not improvise.

Weiss shifted her foot backwards some, obviously in deep thought. I scanned the nearby area, wondering if anyone else was here. Sure enough, Ruby was standing just below me, scythe at the ready. Well now we couldn't have that, could we. Activating one of my Catalysts, I dropped silently and invisibly out of tree and just next to Ruby. If she knew i was there, she gave no indication.

As Ruby's legs tensed in preparation to launch into the fray, I summoned a long curved pole-arm and placed it a foot in front of Ruby. She still could not see it, though she would definitely feel it in just a moment. At the exact same time as the Schnee rushed forwards, Ruby belted out of our cover with a surprising amount of speed. I actually had to focus in order to keep her form stable in my eyes.

Then everything fell into place. While Ruby would have cut down the Beowolf Weiss was going for, she now launched forwards, tripped on my pole-arm, and was sent tumbling into Weiss' legs and sending the two sprawling into the grass, right at the foot of one of the wolves. To make matters even better, Weiss' Rapier must have been infused with red dust because at the same moment, an uncontrolled wave of fire belted out of the end, narrowly missing the two of them. It did however set that section of the woods on fire.

Laughing silently, I left the clearing and continued on my way, listening to the sounds of their struggles. I love it when a plan falls together.

 **Ruby P.O.V.**

I pushed some power into my semblance, preparing to cut the head off of the Beowolf in front of Weiss. Quickly I jumped, but felt something hit my ankle. Tripping violently, I had still built up enough momentum to carry me forwards, directly into Weiss. Her Rapier, apparently charged with red dust fired off. I felt the hair on the side of my head singe, creating a sickly smell.

In a heap we tumbled a few feet to the side. The second we stopped I felt painful jabs in my side as Weiss shoved me off and tried to jump back into stance, gaining an unkempt appearance. "What are you doing you dolt!" She screamed at me.

"I'm sorry I- Behind you!" I yelled, signaling that there was a Beowolf with a raised claw at her back. She turned around at the last possible moment, catching the blow with her blade. It was futile was the creature's strength began to overpower her own. Thinking fast, I poured power into my semblance again, thankful I had somehow held onto Crescent Rose.

Swiftly I chopped the Beowolf's head off and it fell to the ground, already dissipating along with the ichor pouring from the wound. I prepared to fight the rest of the dozen or so Grimm around us before Weiss grabbed my arm and began pulling me, pointing at the large and fast-spreading fire. "We have to go!"

* * *

 **Darren P.O.V**

 **One hour later**

After an annoyingly long time of walking and a slightly less annoying amount of Grimm that were attracted to me, I finally found a stone temple looking area. There were two people already there, partners I assume. From the looks of their auras, it was Blake and Yang. Figuring that no one will make it here without a partner, I finally removed my blindfold, letting the colors of the forest come back.

"Oh, you again." Blake said to me. Yang looked at her. "You know this guy?"

"Yeah, we talked books and stuff last night. Ain't that right?" I said. Blake nodded and I took notice of the golden knight Yang was holding. Still having the aura-sight bleeding into my regular vision, I saw that piece, as well as every other 'relic' had the purple coloration of Glynda's aura. Walking over, I collected the Black Rook and stowed it within my leather jacket.

A high-pitched scream echoed off in the distance. I turned around and Yang was looking at the sky concerned. "Did you hear that?"

A second, slightly lower and much closer scream came through the air as Ruby fell from the sky. "Heads uuuuuup!"

Unexpected even to me, what looked like Jaune crashed into Ruby mid-air, sending them both roughly into the side of a tree. Ruby landed laying on the ground, and Jaune hanging by his skewered pant leg. "Did your sister just fall from the sky?"

Before the confused blonde could answer, multiple explosions and splashes of pink came out of the forest on an Ursa, followed by joyous feminine screams saying 'Yee Haw'. Roaring in obvious pain, the Ursa fell face-first into the ground, dead. A ginger-headed girl in a pink skirt jumped off before looking back. "Aww, it's broken."

"Broken, what-" I said, being surprised still after all my years alive. I was cut off however by the same person who fought the King Taijitu coming around the corner, heaving for breath. "Nora... Please... Don't ever do that again." Straightening up, he started frantically looking around for his obvious counter-part, whom even I didn't see move.

"Oooh." I heard, turning around to see her staring at the Golden Rook before grabbing it and beginning to sing. Thankfully it was cut short by the green one shouting her name. She giggled. "Coming Ren."

Good. Now I had both of their names. "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake again questioned. Once again Yang tried to answer, only to be stopped again by the sound of multiple trees falling, and a roaring. Out from the forest burst forth a humongous Death-stalker, closely following Pyrrha, who had hidden panic written on her face.

She caught sight of her partner, seemingly glad that he was okay. "Jaune!" "Pyrrha!"

Ruby jumped up in surprise. "Woah!" "Ruby!" Apparently Jaune was also surprised. Did they really not know they were next to each other? She rolled away from the boy and saw Yang. The two of them did a similar roll call as before, until Nora jumped up between them, yelling her own name.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death-stalker on her tail?" I'll admit, her calm attitude towards all of this was impressive even by my standards. Anyone else I knew would be close to having a mental breakdown or something by now.

"I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" Que the breakdown. Her screaming was added onto the effect by Yang's eyes turning red and her hair briefly catching into spurts of flame that did her no harm. Interesting.

After the demanded two seconds, Ruby pulled on Yang's sleeve worriedly, pointing at the sky. While a lot of people might have been able to tell what the problem was, I could clearly see that Weiss Schnee was hanging by one hand on the talon of a Nevermore. A faint "How could you leave me?" Was heard.

"I said 'jump'." Ruby said innocently. Blake spoke to her, still looking up. "She's gonna fall."

"She'll be fine."

"She's falling." Ren said helpfully. I chuckled in the background, earning a few strange looks. "This is gonna be good." She was about two hundred feet above the ground and falling fast. I only awaited the splat that would be heard if anyone fell from that height. Unfortunately, at about fifty feet some boy jumped out of a tree in a stupid attempt to play the hero. Both of them fell, Weiss landing on the poor fellow.

Behind them, Pyrrha continued running from the Death-stalker. Well, I say running, but the thing had actually gained on her, and at that moment landed a solid blow. Silently she flew through the air, landing at our feet. "Great! The gang's all here. Now we can die together!" Yang said in an oddly enthusiastic voice. Ruby however seemed to have different plans.

"Not if I can help it." And with that she charged off to meet the opponent. Me, I slipped out thinking to myself 'You don't, but I do.'. Sinking into the trees, I bode my time, watching the horrendous failure of an attack that Ruby attempted, and the even more costly dodging maneuver. Her cloak was caught in the onslaught of feathers that came from an overhead Nevermore, the same one that Weiss dropped off of.

I wondered why she did not simply remove the cloak from her body, and escape. She quite literally let the Death-stalker come up to her and attack. Lucky for her though, Weiss came to the rescue, because I sure wasn't going to. The ice pillar she created however, caught the tail of the massive scorpion. That was a perfect attack opportunity.

I pulled my nameless sword from its sheathe, preparing to use a fraction of my true power against the Grimm. Before it could free itself, I propelled myself forwards with greater speed than Ruby had used earlier. I jumped, gaining the height to fly over their heads. The two of them were talking, silenced by my fleeting form and the exploding crash that came a micro-second after.

I smashed through the dust-enhanced ice with my blade, and spun in midair through the stinger of the Death-stalker. As I came to the ground, blade outstretched, the stinger and its appendage fell behind me, earning a roar of pain from the scorpion. It reeled over to me, holding up its ancient bone-plated claws in defense. I leered at it, my eyes seemed a shade darker than they were a moment ago.

I slashed multiple times with one arm into the bone plate, digging in inches deeper that any of Ruby's high-impact rounds. At the end of my multiple attacks, the creature through a desperate attack at me, which I casually sidestepped with blinding speed. Though the gap in its defense, I dashed blade first in mimicry of a Weiss' stab. The blade sunk deep, and the Death-stalker's eyes lost their glow.

I pulled my blade free from the face of my downed enemy, and turned towards everyone else. Most of the stared at me with wide eyes after seeing such a massive enemy defeated so quickly and with such ease. "How.. What?" Ruby said at me. "I barely saw you move."

"I'm faster than you." I said simply. Yang glared slightly at me for that, and I didn't understand why. Everyone else stared silently, seemingly ignoring the Nevermore. Until it screeched behind my back that is. "Look out!"

I turned slowly and stared into a wall of bladed feathers larger than my sword. The first few tips were only feet from me. Not wanting to seem invincible and instead fast, I poured a solid 25% of my power into speed alone. Time slowed and I began striking. Each and every feather from the volley never met the ground, and instead met my blade.

I sliced all of them from the air with a speed that I was sure Ruby couldn't even begin to follow. The volley may have only lasted 8 or so seconds, but to me it felt like minutes. Minutes that passed and ended. Once I was certain the feathers had stopped, I relinquished my hold on my speed, and time came back.

 **Ruby P.O.V.**

"Look out!" I warned Darren, fearing it was already too late. He turned around and then just, disappeared. The only indications I could tell were short spurts of his form in multiple places at once. Each image left a sliced feather in its place. Soon broken and cut apart feathers littered the ground around me and him.

Just as soon as it started, it stopped. Darren stopped moving. After a few moments of silence, he turned back to us and his face shocked me to my core. Calm. He was completely and utterly calm, as if the speed wasn't even a serious act for him. I had one question now.

How could I get that fast?"

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you have any questions or comments regarding the limits of Darren/Death's power in speed, feel free to review or PM that. The same goes for any comments or ideas.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I haven't really got anything to say except, sorry for the wait, and enjoy the chapter.**

"Guys, that thing's circling back. What are we gonna do?" Asked Jaune, sounding relatively panicked. I don't know why though. He must have seen what I could do and he's supposed to be a Hunter someday. He needed to get a hold of himself.

"Look, our objective is right in front of us. There's no sense in dilly-dallying." Weiss said, looking like one of the most calm of the group.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting this thing." Ruby said.

"Rub and live. That is an idea i can get behind." Jaune said. Of course it was. I was starting to doubt the mettle of this guy in battle. I mean, he had yet to even touch his weapon, yet alone show any inkling of wanting to attack or defend himself.

Everyone else grabbed one of the artifacts on the pedestals, and turned to the opening in the forest. "Let's go." Ruby said. She took off and everyone followed her. It didn't take long running through the clearing before we happened upon more ruins, these looking older. As we continued over a small incline, we were forced to stop moving immediately as there was a chasm in front of us with only a stone bridge. A bridge being overseen by the massive Nevermore. Everyone took cover against pillars and walls where they could still see the creature. "Well that's great!" Said Yang."

"Well are we gonna move or not?" I asked impatiently and roughly. I got a few looks in my direction but I glared back at them. Soon they all nodded in acceptance. The green and pink one ran out of cover first. "Nora, distract it!" She obliged, pulling out a large grenade launcher with pink highlights. Just as the Nevermore swooped down she fired with rounds that looked like they packed a serious punch. I'd have to examine that later to find out what kind of ammunition it was.

The large bird flew off as we advanced onto the bridge, Pyrrha firing multiple rounds at it in an attempt to keep it at bay. Unfortunately for us, it ignored her and circled back again, crashing through our bridge with us still on it. I made it across fine along with Weiss, Yang, Ruby, Nora, and by sheer luck, Jaune. Left on the other side was Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake, holding off a very sudden onslaught of Beowolves, which were pushing them closer to the edge.

"We've got to get over there. They need our help. But uh.. I can't make that jump. Out of the corner of my eye, Nora flashed a wicked grin matching one of my own, before knocking Jaune backwards with her grenade launcher, that transformed into a hammer. With a yell of what I can only assume amusement, she catapulted Jaune over by smashing the bridge into a see-saw, and using the report of the firing mechanism to get herself over.

She flew through the air, hitting multiple Beowolves away in an effective AOE attack. One rushed forwards through the shock-wave and swiped at her, pushing her backwards and punting Blake of the edge. Well she was gone, but I kept that thought to myself. "Got any ranged weapons?" Ruby asked from behind me. I pulled my leather jacket to the side some, exposing a row of five throwing-knives, each tipped with a different dust.

Pulling out one with a white tipping, I leveled out my shot to hit the Nevermore. Leading and predicting the trajectory took some thinking on my part, but in the end I launched my knife at the speed of a bullet, waiting for the impact. About two seconds later the side of the Bird-Grimm erupted into a horrendous gale that threw it off course. A black speck was also catapulted from its form and landed on a stone spire. Blake?

She jumped and landed next to us. "It's tougher than it looks." I heard many metal parts moving to my right and saw Yang activating a pair of golden gauntlets. "Then let's hit it with everything we've got!" I was starting to wonder where the 'There's no point in fighting this thing' plan went. I didn't mind though. This was more fun.

After yang had spoken, a slew of dust, high caliber rounds, and explosive shells were ejected at the bird flying in our direction. True to the nature of the Nevermore's steel like feathers, it flew through the onslaught like it was nothing, crashing into our part of the ruins. We were forced to climb our way up falling rubble and onto stable ground.

We all landed on an upper section of an aqueduct, except for Yang, who landed far right to us and Blake, to the left. "None of this is working." Weiss said. "Oh really?" I said sarcastically. Ruby stayed silent, looking around at who was here. Blake was in a position to the left and Yang on a spire shooting explosive rounds repeatedly that were doing about as much as licking a brick wall.

"I have a plan. Cover me!" Ruby yelled before vaulting off somewhere. With Yang distracting the Nevermore, I had nothing else to do but take in what was happening to the others on the bridge. With the help of Jaune and Nora, they were starting to pus back the pack and cut towards the Alpha. Two lesser wolves came attacking towards the group but Pyrrha and Jaune in a surprisingly similar move used their shields and pushed each attacker to the side. Ren rushed forwards firing his guns.

Dodging the first swipe, Ren began a flurry of cuts up and down the Alpha's form. Ignoring the pain, the Alpha smashed Ren to its left, careening him into a stone wall. He had some success in his attack though, as the Alpha took a step forward but limped on its right leg heavily. "Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled, alerting her to the weakness. "Done!"

Pyrrha whipped her shield into the knee-joint and collapsed the Beowolf down onto paws and knees. "Nora, nail it!" Nora nodded, getting an airborne vault off of Pyrrha's shield and coming down hard with an explosive impact that catapulted her and everyone else off the bridge, leaving the dismembered Alpha and his pack to fall down the chasm.

A stray cry from the Nevermore brought me back to attention and it seemed Yang had finally landed a meaningful hit and angered it past circling. It charged her, breaking through her tower of stone and catching the blonde it its mouth. Surprisingly though, she held the beak open and fired more explosive shots directly into the insides of the bird.

It must have hurt because even after Yang jumped off, it continued in its flight path directly into the side of the cliff, making the entire stone structure beneath my feet shake precariously. It did however land on its feet, so props to that. Still angered, the bird beat its wings to take back off as Weiss charged forwards, gliding on miniature Repelling Glyphs.

I saw the glow of her dust chamber from my position, blue. She intended to freeze the creature in place. Apparently without my notice, Ruby had gone around and set up her plan. Weiss jumped, her rapier in hand as the came down on the stone fact below the Nevermore's tail feathers. I watched the ice grow and the dust in her chamber deplete, and I knew the ice wouldn't make it.

Simply because I didn't want my options dying out this soon, I decided to help. I jumped from my perch with untamed speed as I impacted the ice ledge which had stopped growing just a few feet short of the tail feathers. I gripped them, using a portion of my power to summon a replica of Attraction Glyphs. They were not Glyphs though, they were my own. With much more jagged and broken patterns and being a natural dark purple, I made my Sigils. Yet another of my Catalysts.

With a decent portion of my power pumping strength into my arms and durability into my body, I withstood the beating of the Nevermore's humongous wings as it struggled to take off. Weiss looked at me and I gave her a 'hurry up' nod. She did the same before launching herself back to the start with another white Glyph.

Seeing everything in place, I watched Yang and Blake connect some sort of ribbon between two stone spires and Ruby jump into it, scythe first. I had expected the ribbon to break with little force, but it just kept constricting, gaining an enormous amount of potential energy, enhanced by Weiss using an Attraction Glyph, this time black with strength, and pulling Ruby even further down. The stone spires groaned in protest of their new weight, but held.

Now I love it when a plan comes together, especially when it's my plan. But I couldn't just let this obvious team form in front of me without a little bit of a rocky start. So when I heard Weiss say with overconfidence that she could make the shot, I reached outwards with my mind and grabbed her glyph, altering it by mere degrees and Joules in power and direction. Everything would still happen, just not as planned.

The Glyph turned red as Ruby bled her semblance into it, shooting forwards like a bullet, rose petals coming off of her form the hole way. While she was obviously meant to hit the neck of the creature with her scythe blade and slow her approach with the weight of the bird, she instead hit the skull-plate of the bird, only just hooking her blade between it and the skin.

Unfortunately for her, the leverage proved to much as I tugged on the creature inconspicuously, vaulting them both into the side of the cliff painfully. I heard a decent snap com from Ruby's leg and a pained yelp, but she ignored it. More than that though, she surprised me. After a row of Attraction Glyphs appeared on the cliff face and pulled her to it, she began to run.

I could not see her face but I knew something was broken, and yet she ran up the cliff, using her semblance to tug along the immense weight of the bird which I had almost forgotten to let go of. Bullets fired out of her gun at a high interval. Obviously she was using everything at her disposal to make this happen. She earned the slightest bit of my respect, which is more than I can say for 99% of Remnant's population.

She was slowing though, and as she reached the top of the cliff and prepared to fire the gun one last time, two things spelled her undoing. One, her gun ran out of ammo thanks to her extensive use, and two, she landed on her bad leg and it buckled. I could see the bones shift as her aura finally ran out of strength to hold it together. Still holding on the Nevermore, she struggled to finish the job she started and decapitate the thing.

Knowing I couldn't make it up in time to finish the job myself, without moving fast enough to break the sound barrier, which would cause questions. I instead slipped a knife out of my jacket the blade steel looking purple at the tip as I launched the knife upwards. In one second, the knife made contact with the back end of her scythe, right at the barrel. To everyone who didn't know what happened, it simply looked like Ruby had switched to a much more powerfully recoiling round to finish it.

To me, my Gravity Dust tipped knife exploded on impact, pushing the razor-sharp blade though the neck of the Nevermore, decapitating it. The massive body of the Grimm-Bird began to fall downwards, so large it looked as if in slow-motion. Quickly I jumped out of the way to avoid being the landing strip for a carcass large enough too be mistook for a complex of posed right.

I landed near the other three who had been the ones to initiate the plan. Everyone looked very happy and relieved, though Yang looked somewhat angry. "I thought you said you could make the shot." Yang accused. Weiss looked at her. "I-I can, at least, I should have been able to. Maybe it was the wind."

"The wind?" Yang asked, only getting angrier. Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder. "We _are_ in a high turbulence zone, and thing _was_ starting to freak out." Black said to her. For a moment, Yang looked like she was about to yell at her for siding with Weiss, but took a breath and calmed down. "You're right. Sorry Weiss."

"Apology accepted. It's not like the shot was up to my standards either." The two of them were silent after that. After making sure everyone that got separated got over the bridge, the group of them started climbing up the cliff on the remaining aqua-duct that still touched the cliff-side. I was already halfway up and taking my sweet time with the rest of the climb.

I didn't really care about the others on the other side of the chasm, and I knew that the three I left could get them over just fine. The breeze up here was nice, and I wanted to enjoy it a little longer before getting back to Beacon. With my slow pace everyone had managed to catch up with me nearing the top.

I was the first over the ledge, using my fingers to jolt me up just high enough to get my footing. Laying on the ground in front of me was Ruby, trying and failing to lift her legging and see the severity of the injury. I say failing because the area was apparently sensitive enough that just touching it hurt. Running on it while carrying a Nevermore couldn't have helped the break.

"Hey Blondie, your sister's up here with a broken something." I said over the edge. With a yelp of concern, Yang vaulted from the rocks she was on, about ten feet down, and landed a little closer than me to Ruby, immediately trying to figure out where it was broken. "It's my leg Yang. I'm pretty sure it's broken. Her eyes flashed red for a second, remembering how Weiss made the shot. "I'm sorry. This is my fault."

Hearing the sincerity in Weiss' voice shit down any anger. Blake stooped next to Yang to see the break. With a little help holding down Ruby, she got the legging up to knee level. It wasn't pretty. Her femur was intact, but her shine bone was pressing on her skin, only staying inside because of her auras efforts. it was snapped in two.

Blake pressed on the area softly, seemingly looking for something. More yells of pain came out of Ruby before Blake took back her hand. "It's a cleaner break, no shards. She'll heal." That was surprising, considering how hard she hit the cliff. Maybe I underestimated her aura. It was also a blessing because If I had hurt her too bad she wouldn't have been able to stay.

"Then one of you want to put her on your back. I'm pretty sure we're getting graded on the time. "Yang spoke back with more than a hint of anger. "Yeah I'll get on that. Let me just..." Her body started to glow as it focused towards her hands. "Yang, no."

Blake stopped her. "Aura healing without a splint or setting the bone can be dangerous. And we have no sedatives. Do you want to put Ruby through that?" Yang's eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do. "No. And we're pretty close to Beacon. Can you wait until we get there sis'." Yang asked. "Yeah. I'll live."

A strange cracking noise drew their attention as Weiss used the last reserves of her Ice Dust to make a fist-sized chunk of ice. "Hold this against it until we get there. It will take the swelling down some." Ruby said her thanks, taking the ice n one hand and holding onto Yang with the other. With that settled we set out for Beacon, in relatively clear view thanks to our proximity.

* * *

"Led by... Ruby Rose." This followed by cheering filled my ears faintly as I leaned against the balcony. After doing my best to make sure I had no teams, I also had no place in there. I was alright with that. After Ruby was admitted to the medical bay, ceremonies were put on hold until they stabilized her leg. She had actually gotten to the Crutch stage relatively fast.

 _'Good for her'_ I thought sarcastically. With her trying to lead such clashing personalities, I gave that Team two weeks, tops, before they were at each other's throats. The thought of the for of them fighting in a room and Ruby dominating the space with her scythe made me chuckle. They had a moment of silence for the three who died. Kind of lucky for me as they would have become my team by default.

"Mr..." A voice behind me stopped, allowing me to finish the sentence for them. "Darren." I said." I could almost feel the head shake. "Last name." I hand't thought of a last name yet. Today had been eventful. Luckily I was staring down at a street and saw a good-looking car parked. "Bentley. Darren Bentley." I heard a few taps on glass as that was apparently noted. I turned around, seeing it was Ozpin. His many souls glittering under a green guise. His own perhaps.

"About your team, or rather, placement. You must know that there were a few unfortunate deaths. Jacob Roan, Rick Carthus, and Reyna Wild. They did not make it out of the forest." I made a face of mock sadness. "I'm perfectly fine working without a team." I told him. "I'm afraid I'm not. You see, when we founded the schools, a promise was made that a Hunter would never fight alone. In order to keep this, I must put on paper that you have been linked to another Team."

"What are the requirements for that?" I asked him, seeing how closely I would be tied to the Team. "It is your choice whether or not you share a dormitory with them. Whenever you are to go on a mission, you will be accompanied by this Team. In Team Training exercises, you will have to participate either on the outside or in place of one of the four other members."

"Do I get to chose which Team?" I asked, faking politeness. He affirmed me of my choice and I thought hard about which would be more interesting. Team CRDL was basically a group of jerks and I didn't care for it. I'd prefer to break them from the outside. Team JNPR had two important names to it, being Pyrrha and Jaune. That might be fun to break those two, but it would draw suspicion if I was close enough to do damage. I needed an alibi. "I'll officially merge with Team RWBY, but nothing closer." I told him.

"I am thankful for you cooperation. I'll inform them of your choice." He said. I shook my head. "Oh no. If I'm gonna have to compromise and join a team, which I went through initiation with a blindfold on just to avoid, your gonna have to give me a few freedoms." I told him with an edge to my voice. If he noticed it, he didn't care.

"Name your terms, and I'll decide if I accept them or not." He said, a slightly dangerous calm to his voice. It might have scared anyone else, but I had faced down greater threats smiling.

"No curfew. I want free-roam throughout the school at all hours of the night." I told him. "Everywhere that isn't inside other dorms or teacher's quarters. I'll agree to that."

"I'm not bunking with Team RWBY. I'll either be sleeping outside on one of the rooftops or camping out in the Emerald Forest." He cocked his head to the side a bit at that. "Whatever risks you want to take, go ahead and do so. Anything else?"

"Full access to Beacon's forges and armory." His eyes narrowed slightly at that. "The forges come with being a student, but you will have access to practice weaponry withing the training rooms and nothing more." His own edge was added into his voice, and something about it told me I didn't want to push my luck. Not yet anyway.

"Alright. I suppose I've pushed my luck far enough already. Are we in agreement?" I held out a hand in human custom to seal a deal. "You have pushed you luck too far, but I am a reasonable man. Your prowess shown in Initiation will be valuable to mankind and faunus alike. We are in agreement." We shook hands and at the brief contact of his aura and my power, I was able to read only one thing. Mistakes.

I didn't understand what that meant, and his aura was so closely guarded that I doubt I could get much more out without him noticing. "I will go inform Team RWBY-D of the new arrangements." He turned his back to me and walked back inside. Usually in a position like this, it would be incredibly easy for me to kill a man, but something told me once again that it wouldn't be that easy. It was almost as if I didn't have the hold on him that I thought I did. The notion disturbed me.

Wanting to clear my head and perhaps consult the force of Death in and of itself, I hopped onto the roof of the Dormitory building, landing a few feet from the edge and taking a meditative position. It didn't take long before the light of the shattered moon faded from behind my eyelids and I became once again connected to the forces I diverged myself from. Immediately the souls of the living and dead came into my mind, and I searched.

It didn't take me long to find the 'soul' of Ozpin due to my close proximity, but it was still harder than it should of been. When I 'looked' at him, it was wrong. Death has a certain look to it. When a soul dies, a replica mark is created, surrounded by a kind of miasma in the place that they died, and transferred to the afterlife after my force claimed them. The same goes for life, having a certain light to it.

When I looked at Ozpin however, it was _wrong._ The miasma of death was all over him and yet, through the fog, the same amount of brightness shone through. He was blurred in the unnatural contrast and I wan unable to fully focus on him. He was dead and alive at the same time.

I fear nothing, having nothing that can kill me. I can face down Grimm that could end cities with a smile, and play poker with some of Remnant's worst murderers. I could traipse through the very heart of uncharted areas like a walk in the park, and climb mountains surrounded by Nevermore without breaking a sweat. But the notion that there was a man that I did not have a hold on, that possibly couldn't die, that... Frightened isn't the right word, but it made my hair stand on edge and gave you the same sense that would make you look over your shoulder repeatedly. It was simply unnatural.

"Little help!" A shrill voice asked me. I disconnected from the forces of death and opened my eyes. A smoke had gathered around my body and dissipated in the wind upon my awakening. "Who's there?" I called out, not seeing anyone. "It's Ruby, now can you help me before I fall!?" My eyes locked onto a hand gripping the ledge of the building I was on.

Taking my time, knowing I could grab the hand instantly if I so pleased, I strolled over to the hand. Sure enough, dangling over the edge with a large cast on her leg, was Ruby Rose. A pained look was on her face as she tried to pull herself up. Sighing, I grabbed her wrist and tugged, nearly vaulting her above me. "Woah!"

I set her down on my other side away from the edge. She sat down, injured leg outstretched. "Thanks." I chuckled. "You should really wait until you're recovered before you go building hopping." She chuckled to. "Yeah, but I had a good reason."

"Now what could be important enough to climb on the roof with a broken leg?" She looked down for a moment before answering. "I saw what you did during Initiation." I froze for a moment, thinking she had found me out and knew I pulled the bird out of her path. "I saw how fast you were, and I know I'm nowhere near that level."

"Oh. Well what are you going to do with this new information?" I asked her. She kind of chuckled at me, but it sounded nervous, not comical. "Well, first I'm going to get this cast off, which doctors said should only be a week thanks to my aura. Then I'm going to get faster. Get better."

"How do you plan to do that?" I asked. Mostly because even though I knew her semblance was speed, it would still be nearly impossible for her to reach the speeds I had. "Well, that's the thing. You see, I'm the fastest person in Beacon, second to you."

I knew where this was going, and it had probability to be both incredibly amusing and time-wasting. But, I did have four years to accomplish anything I wanted to. "I need to get faster, so I was wondering if you would train me." I almost laughed. The reason for that was that I had never even thought about how I would go about training someone, and that I was probably about to pull the biggest scam, on this young girl. "We start the day you get your cast off, doctor's 'ok' or not."

"Wait, what? Yo'll train me?!" She almost squealed in excitement. "That's a yes Ruby. and, if you'd like, I'll give you your first lesson on that trick you saw when I was fighting the Nevermore." She smiled, sitting forwards more. "Sure!"

"Alright. So you saw multiple copies of me as I was slashing away at the feathers, correct?" She nodded. "What you see there is something called the After-Image effect, a sort of byproduct of something switching places in rapid fashion. When used correctly, it can confuse opponents." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Like a door stopper with the springy thing!"

I inwardly groaned at how childish she was being. Then again she was two years younger than anyone else here. "Yes Ruby, like on of those."

"Show me." She said. It wouldn't be a lot of stress on my part, so I stood up and started focusing my power into speed. "You won't be able to do this for a while, at least not full bodily, but I may as well explain how. You must first assume a base position." I stood straight with my arms slightly raised on either side.

"They you begin the motions, starting slow..." As I said this I began the instance of side-hopping at a high rate, accentuating the fact that I stopped in the same position each time. As I went faster I continued to speak, my voice beginning to warp. "And you work yourself faster until..." My body began blurring at the edges, the flashes of black signifying my transition to each position lessening to the human eye, while at the same time each of my After-Images became clearer.

"The illusion is complete." I finished, my voice warbling as if there was two, both mouths speaking the same. "That is so cool!" Ruby said, pumping her arms in the air. "Now we can take this a step further. Do you know how?" She shook her head, waiting. "We evolve the illusion."

As I said this, my After-Images became three, then four, increasing until there were six of me standing side by side. At this point, I was focusing a very substantial amount of my power into speed, and this lesson needed to end within the next few minutes. "Something you need to know, is that you can see through these illusions. I am stopping at one of these bodies, slightly longer than the other. Tell me which one." To make it easier, I dumbed down my forms to four, and waited.

She looked incredibly closely at each one of my After-Images for a solid minute. In this time, I could see her eye movement become more and more rapid, trying to keep up. Finally she gave me an answer. "The second one." I stopped moving in the position of the fourth, and walked over to her. "Wrong."

 **Sorry about the longer wait, but the chapter is a much longer one than I'm used to in order to make up for it. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Remember to leave a review or PM if you have any comments or ideas as to where things can go. You never know if I'll use it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So yeah, big mistake. Two actually. I'm not sure if you noticed one of my spelling mistakes, but I had a bad one shortly after Ruby Weiss apologized to Ruby. If you didn't see it, go look at it because it's kind of funny.**

 **BrownTeddyBear mentioned to me that I had made two last names for Darren. West in the first chapter, and Bentley in the most recent. To clear things up, I like Bentley more, so that is his last name.**

 **I also apologize for the wait. Near the end of my Thanksgiving break I got sick and when I'm sick my quality decreases. I would rather take time to make something good than output garbage. As far as that goes, here is the next chapter.**

Beacon Academy was boring in every aspect of the word. The classes like history and Grimm Studies were useless in most aspects. Thanks to me taking the knowledge from victims, as well as having actually _lived through them_ , I knew almost every event that had come to pass in Remnant's past. As far as Grimm Studies, knowing the weakness of your enemies was useful, but it wasn't anything you couldn't learn in the field.

The less frequent class with Professor Peach was a refreshing amount of reality. She told us people would die and that you couldn't save everyone. The first lessons were of which wounds in which areas were the most stable. Everyone but me seemed downcast after that class. I couldn't have taught it better myself.

The only class that offered me any sort of entertainment was Combat, taught by Professor Glynda Goodwitch. A much more demeaning and comedic name for her was already passing through the halls in the first few days. But the class itself let me enjoy watching the strong pummel the weak. Today in particular I watched Pyrrha Nikos, the champion herself, absolutely decimate Team CRDL without so much as taking a hit. Her aura lay at 98% at the end of the fight.

Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?" Silently she stared at us all for a moment before I raised my hand, noting the beginnings of the same movement coming from a silver-haired boy across the room. "I'll give it a go." I said. Finally, an excuse to slightly maim someone.

"Darren, is it. Very well, let's find you an opponent." I jumped down from our raised seats and landed on the wooden floor with a loud *thump*. "She's already standing in the arena. So let's do this." Pyrrha made a noise of confusion before Glynda answered me.

"I'm afraid miss Nikos has just finished a match. I'd recommend you choose another partner." Pyrrha raised her sword/spear once she had finished talking. No! It's fine. I'd be happy to oblige." I smiled wickedly and she got an uneasy look in her eye. "Alright then. If you would please go grab your weapons at the side of the room and gear up, we can get this match started."

I waked to the right end of the room where our lockers were transported. I didn't have much to take. I simply took off the more restricting School Uniform Jacket and slipped on my leather over-coat and slung my sword over my back. Done with that, I entered the ring with a smug look on my face. Pyrrha waited in the center and before we started I asked a question. "Just one thing, is Psychological Warfare allowed?" Both Glynda and Pyrrha looked at me strangely.

"However you may manage that, you may do so." I nodded before facing my opponent again and getting in a readied stance. "Let's do this." Glynda pressed a few buttons and my aura appeared next to Pyrrha's on the hologram above us. "3. 2. 1. Begin." The second she gave us the signal, I charged at Pyrrha fast, a wrist mounted blade being summoned upon my hand.

In the thrust I performed, Pyrrha slid her shield at my blade, pushing it to the side before stepping where I had come from and countering with a slash. Unperturbed I slung around my blade and impacted her own with equal force, knowing the shock it would put on her arm would be more effective than a simply parry or catch. It worked as I saw a slightly pained look on her face before becoming stony as she saw my counter. I had summoned a second wrist-mounted blade and cross, sliced her twice, once jumping forwards and the second backwards to put distance between us. She blocked them both, standing steadfast at what most people would have considered an impressive strength.

She seemed to like the distance just fine as her gladiator-like sword shifted into the spear with the barrel in the back. With a fast spin of the weapon two shots were fired off at me and I let them impact my chest. Not my smartest idea because at my limited defensive power, they stung and my 'aura' lowered 1%. Pyrrha stopped spinning her weapon with the blade leveled at me and held above her head. A pounding noise echoed again as the blade punched like a piston at me. With a swipe of my hand I blocked the tip from impacting me and charged at her in the opportune moment where the spear was in motion.

Not as opportune as I thought because the second I got close to her I felt the metal shaft of the spear impact me in the head. It didn't hurt, but it did put me off balance enough for the spear to come around and do it again, this time the bladed end impacting me. The blade skipped off of me thanks to my focusing my power into a shield.

I gripped the wrist-mounted blades that were positioned under my palms and transformed them into two broadswords. My opponent looked at me warily as I chuckled and jumped towards her. I performed the came-cross chops again, only this time pushing forwards with both and pushing Pyrrha backwards. Then I jumped and spun diagonally, slicing into her shield twice more. An impressive guard if I must say.

I decided to test just how far that guard would go as my swords transformed again, becoming longer and sleeker, more fit for stabbing than slashing, though good for both. At the same time Pyrrha switched her own weapon back into a gladiator sword. Smiling wickedly again, I moved much faster forwards than I had before, my right arm raised in a strong stab meant to impale her in the chest. She raised her shield in a feigned block, letting her block crumple as she dodges. My reaction time increased I slashed wildly at her as I turned around, catching her in the shield again. This was going to be fun.

"Keep it up. I'm having a good time." She smiled in amusement before I charged again, slashing three times in three different direction before using a double-bladed slash to push her shield to the side and I stabbed mercilessly. Her shield was back in place faster and she used the same fake block. This time I wasn't charging and while she deflected my right blade, my left caught her by surprise in her shoulder. The sharpness of it temporarily bypassed her aura and she jumped back in surprise.

Realizing she was doing better with range, she activated her weapon and transformed it into a spear again. This time she charged me and I met her with an overhead slash using both swords. She blocked them and shoulder-bashed me at the same time before spinning and sending a bullet-propelled spear stab into my stomach. I had little time to block it and pushed it to the side.

She used this to spin around and slam the flat of the blade into my chest before twirling the weapon at an immense speed, effectively turning it into a saw-blade. I narrowly voided the spinning blade's first pass and was forced to use both blades in an 'X' shape to catch it. The centrifugal force behind it granted the blow impressive strength. Enough to shatter my summoned blades. The pieces scattered across the ground. I laughed. "Big mistake."

While she was confused, I reached out my hold onto the still solid shards and sent them at her. Six shards attempted to embed themselves into her skin. Two Bounced off her leg armor and a third off her shield. One sliced a thin cut into her cheek and the last two were blocked by her aura. "All bets are off now." I told her. She was just testing me at first and now was fighting fully. It was time to return the favor.

I stepped back and unsheathed my massive blade with one hand and spun it like a cane before catching it in two hands, ready. With reach enough to match her spear, I swung horizontally at her side. She jumped, placing a hand on the flat of my blade in the motion. Suddenly my blade's trajectory smashed into the floor and I was dumbstruck for a moment. That was all Pyrrha needed as she swung her spear into my shoulder, jumping behind me in the same motion.

Still in the air, another bullet-stab smashed into the base of my neck, directly on my spinal cord. I'll admit, it stung. It also made me laugh wickedly and dangerously as a thin line of blood that was almost black trickled out of the wound like a needle stab. "Oh, now you've gone and done it." Faster, much faster than before I swung my blade, ripping it out of the ground and impacting her shield, sending her halfway across the arena with the force of it. She landed roughly, surprise written on her face as well as a few gasps from the crowd. "Remember my question about Psychological Warfare?" I asked her. She nodded warily. "Lights out."

As I said those words, every light in the room lost their power and the room plunged into pitch black darkness. The only thing visible to everyone else was our Aura Bars. Hers was at 92% and mine 99%. I could see perfectly through the darkness. What I saw amused me. Pyrrha already had her eyes closed, deeming them useless. She was un-moving, listening. It would do her no good.

With muted movements, I sailed through the air and slashed at her. Surprisingly she moved her shield in the direction of my sword and blocked it. What was different now is that she tanked the force of it without so much as a huff, and swung her spear, _hard._ The impact hurt and sent me a few feet backwards. "How did you... Oh." I suddenly realized her semblance.

I sheathed my massive blade before slinging it off my back and outside the arena. Then I took off my throwing knives and dropped those as well. "Good luck seeing me now. Her eyes opened, still seeing nothing. Or at least I thought. While I was removing all my metal, she had taken our one of her bullets and activated the dust within it, making a slow burn and lighting a circle around her. The light didn't reach the crowd, but it let her see a little. "I'm impressed. I didn't think you'd figure out my semblance in one fight."

I echoed my voice, making it come from everywhere and nowhere. "As am I. It is clear to me now that you're cut from a different cloth than everyone else. I'm going to enjoy this." Her eyes narrowed again, but not warily. Oh no, her eyes held the first hints of fear. Faster than most warriors could see, I struck with a summoned blade that was translucent. It passed through her leg armor and cut her shins as she yelped with pain.

I came for a second pass, making a cut on her back, then arm, leg again, and a last one just an inch below her eye. She wasn't moving to block though. She took each hit with little reaction. I decided to make my next one deeper. As I charged again, I watched her eyes zero in on my fleeting form and her shield cut into my gut sharply, not drawing blood. Without a moment's respite she spun her spear, shooting me twice and turning the axis and smashing my jaw with the blunt end and continuing with a cut in the same place.

She tried for a stab milliseconds after the combination attack. I deflected it and spun around, striking her. She had her shield raised but my ethereal blade passed through the molecules and cut her deeply in her shield arm. She bit back a grimace as I jumped and kicked off of her stomach and back into the darkness. There, I echoed my voice again. "You read the pattern. I guess I'll just have to make this quick then.:

Using the same technique as my swords, I summoned multiple spikes around the room. At random intervals I shot them at her, all having enough force behind them to be a light stab. I glanced at her aura. 60%. The attacks kept hurting more, cutting deeper. I could see real fear in her eyes as she struggled to fight back against my attack. It made me smile.

"They say fire is hope. Let me take yours away." My voice echoed in the confines of the arena, this time not reaching those watching. In a flurry of movement, I bashed her painfully out of the way and listened to her impact the wall. I stamped out her light and rushed forwards again, taking her spear from her hands and throwing it away.

Back against the wall, she rolled to the side, thinking she knew where she was. I made a wall that she ran into, and then two more. As she tried to move in either direction, she found herself trapped. "What?" She asked herself, her voice wavering just a bit. She banged the wall twice, and I dissipated it, making her hit open air on the third. She fell forwards and barely stayed on her feet. I spoke again, my voice deeper and more sadistic than before. "This is only the beginning."

I punched her in the cheek and she sailed a foot to the side, failing to catch herself. She was disoriented. "I've got a gift." I said as I threw her weapon back to her, just to see what she would do. I watched her fumble for her ammo magazine, but I had removed it. By now she had actual fear on her face, showing through her green eyes. Her aura was at 40% now.

She switched the spear back into a sword and began swinging desperately at open air, out of options. "Oh, come now. You can do better than that." I said as I calmly appeared behind her, punching her twice in the back. I lashed out at her knees, kicking them out and putting her on her knees. I struck the back of her head. "Oh how the mighty have fallen." I laughed as she struggled to rise off the ground and swung behind her. I was already gone.

I kicked her in the chest, sending her over her knelt legs and onto her back. 30% aura. My attacks were heavy and strong, doing real damage to her now. I tossed a bullet at her head. She fumbled on the ground for it before loading it into her gun and switching to rifle form. Pyrrha then stood up and began aiming to the sides of her wildly. I could see her eyes watering now, on the verge of tears. It made me laugh in a twisted way.

The temperature of the room started to lower as I laughed horribly, the noise of it echoing around with no end. The sound filled the room and only became worse and worse. This was no longer the laugh of my shell. This was the laugh of Death as he watched your soul wither in front of him. Pyrrha now had tears streaming down her face, her movements becoming more erratic. She continued swinging the barrel. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" She screamed. All other noise stopped and I let the crowd hear her panic. "I'm right here." I said from behind her before reaching violently into her aura and damaging it in a way that no one was meant to experience. After only a few seconds, she collapsed, her aura having dropped down to 2%.

The lights came back on, and what everyone saw was a bloodied Pyrrha Nikos, a inter-kingdom champion, lying on the ground in tears. I stood above her, fake concern on my face. I would get a lot of heat if people knew I wanted this. "Are you alright?" I asked. As the red-head looked up at me I made my eyes go completely black and smiled like I had just killed a family and was happy about it. She screamed, trying to crawl away weakly, still crying.

"Mr. Bentley!" Glynda almost screamed, drawing everyone's attention. "What is the meaning of this?" She looked at me with a fury in her eyes that I had not seen in a long time. "I.. I didn't mean to?" I said quietly. She continued walking her pale-green eyes brimming with purple streaks. "When I said that I allowed Psychological Combat, I meant to make them uneasy or hide your real power until an opportune moment. I did not mean to bring a student within an inch of her life and make her fear that she was going to die?!"

She was screaming louder now, her eyes having gone almost fully to purple and I felt a barely restrained power behind them as an uncomfortable pressure started to creep up on every inch of me. "You are lucky that the decision is not up to me or else you would be expelled from this school in seconds." Her voice had gone from screaming to deadly calm and the pressure began to increase. It must have been up to three pounds on every square inch and rising.

"What is up to me is punishment. You will be given detention and take the place of the cleaning staff for the mess hall. Both of these last until the end of the semester. Now get out of my classroom. Our Headmaster should be summoning you withing the hour." The pressure dropped off of my form and I half walked half ran out of the room, pretending to be scared. I barely had time to grab my weapon and knives.

I had learned a lesson though. If I was to continue to torture these people without having the majority of my time restricted, I had to make sure no fingers pointed at me. I also learned that if I want to stay in this school, I can't pull anything else in Glynda's classroom.

 **Glynda's P.O.V.**

I watched in seething rage as Mr. Bentley ran out of the classroom, clambering to grab his weapons. I turned back to my injured student who was still lying on the ground and attempting to compose herself. My anger ran thin as concern filled me and I picked her up, looking at anyone in the room and daring them to make a comment. "I'm taking miss Nikos to the aura healing chambers. Class dismissed." I said. Everyone ran out of the room, afraid of what I might do if they didn't obey. Somewhere in the back of my mind I chastised myself for letting such an open display of anger slip past.

Sparing one glance back at the aura bars, I saw something that shocked me. Pyrrha's aura laid at 2%, but Mr. Bentley's aura lay at 99%, specifically 99.5. I couldn't see to tell how many hits she had landed, but there were a lot thrown. I ignored it and carried the fallen champion to the infirmary.

When we got there an nurse immediately looked at miss Nikos with shock and grabbed her. She was unconscious by now. "What happened?" She asked me. "She has taken extreme physical and aura-based trauma, landing at 2% aura left. Most importantly though was mental trauma. Give her a mild sedative when she wakes up until she is calm."

"Well help her. For now you should probably get cleaned up." I nodded as she walked off with the unconscious Pyrrha Nikos before I looked down. There were spots of blood all over my white blouse and hands. Some of it dried and some fresh. With a sigh I walked off to the washroom to clean up.

* * *

 **Pyrrha's P.O.V.**

I woke up in the dark, lying on a smooth metal floor. The weight of my armor and weapons were not present. I immediately sat up, remembering the battle and how it ended. Where was I? My hands felt cold as they pushed me to my feet, which were now also cold. Now standing I swiveled myself in a circle to look for light sources and was met with only pitch black.

 ***Deep Laugh***

A sound reverberated through the room and sent a chill down my entire being, making me shiver. I recognized it. No it wasn't Darren's laugh in the dark, but something that happened years ago. I remembered clearly the the time I fell through the frozen lake near my home in Mistral. I had heard the laugh then as well. I had only managed to break through the ice again not to live, but to escape that laugh. It terrified me to know it was near again.

 ***Laughs again***

I shivered, partially from fear and partially from the dropping temperature. I was sure that if I had light I would be able to see my breath. Mustering the courage to speak, I called out. "Who are you?"

 **"Wrong... Question." *Another Laugh***

I covered my ears against the deep and evil noise assaulting my ears and soul. If that was wrong then what was right? Maybe if I asked the right question then the laughing would stop. I racked my mind as the noise grew ever louder and I fell to my knees. "Stop stop stop." I whispered without my consent, yet I continued until I found my question.

"What are you?" I asked quietly into the darkness. All of a sudden the laughing stopped and left a cold silence in its place. **"I... Am... Death..."** A moment after the words touched my ears it was as if gale-force winds threw me backwards and carried me. I felt many turns through my blindness until a roaring filled my ears and and a hard impact struck my back.

 **Third Person - Following Pyrrha**

Pyrrha Nikos lay still on her back in the center of a metal and oblong sphere on a metal bed. The room was dimly illuminated and humming softy. It was one of Beacon's emergency Aura Chambers. Many faint white lines of skin and pale bruises covered her skin, the only remainders of the injuries she endured. Her hands tensed and her head began to swivel from side to side, her Rapid Eye Movement increasing as she apparently looked around.

She flinched as if something pained her before stilling for a moment. "Where are you?" She said faintly before wincing again and repetitively. Her arms tensed and un-tensed repeatedly and rapidly as she whispered to herself. "Stop stop stop." Over and over again.

" _What are you?_ " She asked in obvious pain from whatever nightmare she was having. Then she want silent as every piece of magnetic metal in the room dimmed in a black light and bent. Fortunately the actual structure of the room was reinforced and barely groaned under the stress of it. The same could not be said for the hospital bed.

Nuts and washers snapped clean off of their threads and broke away like bullets, pinging off the walls. The framework groaned as it twisted like putty, the white paint chipping off in many places. The entirety of the structure collapsed and the healing girl fell to the floor before jolting upwards as fast as she could. She tried for her feet but slipped on one of the pieces of metal, falling and cutting her hand on a jagged and broken bolt. "Ah!"

Pyrrha fell to her side, cradling her hand that was injured with no aura focused to protect it. It was fairly deep and already bleeding droplets onto the metal floor. Pyrrha's green eyes stopped on her hand for only a moment before wildly looking around to find out where she was. An Aura Chamber. Seeing that she was apparently safe, her heart started to slow down.

"Is everything alright?" A feminine voice said moments after a metal on metal creak of the locking mechanism opening. Pyrrha's head jolted to the side and at the new voice before calming down again. "Oh, Professor Peach. What are you doing here?" She asked, pushing herself up with only her right hand. Peach spared only a moments glance at the bed before meeting Pyrrha's eyes, noting the concealed wild look.

"I heard the crash and came running over. It seems like the chamber did its work as most of your wounds are healed. Let's get that hand wrapped up." Peach said with a bit of concern and a level voice. "I'd like that." The two walked out of the chamber and over to a medical cabinet. Pyrrha took a seat, still holding her hand.

"We should really make those beds out of aluminum." Peach said, referring to Pyrrha's polarity. "I don't believe that would help without aircraft-grade aluminum." Both of them knew the violent outbursts that Hunters and Huntresses had when awakening after a battle. Peach laughed slightly. "You might have a point with that." She began to disinfect the stab wound on Pyrrha's hand. "About how long was I out for?" She asked.

"Curfew has passed with the exception of your team members. It is a little past midnight but one of your friends-"

"Pyrrha!" A male voice said along with the clatter of metal on the floor. Before Pyrrha could look at the doorway she was wrapped in a hug from Jaune who was without his armor and looking tired. "I'm glad you're alright." He said.

"I'm fine Jaune. Just a little shook up." She pat Jaune on the back with her free arm, slightly surprised by the hug. Jaune realized how awkward his tackle-hug was and stood back fast. "Yeah I was just, you know, worried." He looked back at the door. "Oh, I brought you a soda! But I think it's flat now." He said as he picked up the can he dropped. "It's the thought that counts though, right?" He asked sheepishly.

"That it is Jaune." Pyrrha said before wincing as Peach tied medical wrap tightly around Pyrrha's hand. "You're good to go. Because of how long you were out, I've been told to inform you that you are excused from classed tomorrow. "Thank you. I'll be heading back to my room then." Peach nodded as she tossed a bloodied bandage in a bio-hazard bin that was closer than the actual trash can where it belonged.

"Let's go Jaune, I could use some rest despite being unconscious for so long." He nodded. "Yeah, I used to have the same problem all the time." He said before mentally kicking himself. "All the time?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune sighed. "I used to run into a lot of things. I'd wake up an hour later and feel tired." Pyrrha chuckled lightly at the image of an unconscious Jaune being drug back to his house repeatedly by his parent.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha each climbed into their respective beds, careful not to make any noise that would disturb Ren or Nora. Jaune was asleep in minutes while Pyrrha simply lay in the dark, looking at the ceiling and listening to her friends' varying rates of breathing. Sleep was not coming as easily to Pyrrha as it should have been, given how tired she felt. Even when mentally returning to her home in Mistral, peacefully watching the fireplace, she could not fall asleep.

It must have been an hour or so before her eyes finally drifted closed and she felt the embrace of sleep take her. Only moments before she lost consciousness however, she heard it again. Echoing faintly in the dark room was that same laugh. Her eyes immediately shot open and her hand slapped against her waist, looking for her weapon.

She scrambled out of her bed and onto her feet, her eyes somewhat adjusted to the moonlit room. Her breathing was ragged as if she was in the middle of a battle. Her eyes showed fear like a cornered animal. "Pyrrha?" The red-haired girl whipped around with her fist raised at whoever's hand was on her shoulder. Her movements ceased when she saw a half scared half concerned Jaune with one hand raised to cover his face. She stepped backwards, her hands up. "I-I'm sorry."

Her foot caught on something near her nightstand, Milo and Akouo. She grabbed both of them before running to the door. "I-I'm going to train. Don't follow me." She said, her voice shaking slightly due to her nerves. After stepping out of the door before Jaune could protest, Pyrrha ran to the training hall as fast as she could. It was the only place free of curfew besides the dorms.

Looking for something to simply take her mind off of everything, she walked to the corner of the room and opened a door. Inside was another room with a hexagonal patterned floor, walls, and ceiling. In the corner was three labeled dials. There was "Environment", "Time", and "Enemy". They were all holograms and artificially generated environment, but they felt real.

She chose a winter forest at night with scattered Beowolves as her enemy. After turning them all accordingly and stepping to the center of the room, the atmosphere changed. The temperature dropped to 40 Degrees F. and a light snow came. The chill woke Pyrrha up and centered her. It reminded her of the forests in Mistral during winter.

 ***Growl***

The familiar noise of a single Beowolf came to her ears and she turned around, much more calm than she was a moment ago. The feeling of battle always seemed to center her. Milo raised in spear form, unloaded. The wolf in front of her stood with unblinking red eyes, and a snarling maw filled with teeth. It's form flickered ever so slightly as it strode to meet her.

With a steadying breath, Pyrrha closed the distance in a single gliding jump, impaling upwards through the creature's jaw before it had a moment to react. The second was more prepared. When she swung her spear the armored plates on the Beowolf's arm blocked the strike. Her next attack was a stab which caught the wolf in the gut. With well generated AI of a Grimm's beastly-hood, it continued to push itself at her, further impaling its body on the spear. Pyrrha loaded a clip into her spear and fired while applying torque.

The effect was the Beowolf being split in half from the stomach up and then fading from sight. The red-headed warrior remained alert to more sounds. The one sound she didn't want to hear assaulted her and at the same time, the generated moon dimmed. "No." She said faintly, the grip on her weapons becoming white-knuckled.

A shuffling caught her attention and she turned around to see something shambling out of the shadows. A Beowolf with one arm that was dripping an eldritch ichor looked at her with hollow, black eyes. It's fur was matted and balded in many areas and overgrown in others. It was also skinnier than most other Beowolves and walked more akin to a human.

"Stay back!" She said, her weapon transforming into a rifle and firing off a shot into the abomination's skull. Its head recoiled back from the impact, turning slightly. When it came back the left half of its head was blown away and dripping. The creature's jaw fell open in a wheezing mockery of a laugh as it continued to walk at her. Panic seized Pyrrha as she unloaded her clip into the thing before her, chunks coming off with each shot. One bullet caught its leg and the whole body fell forwards and lay still.

Pyrrha's breathing was all that was heard before the body dissipated away and the night sky returned to the well lit ceiling of the Environment Generation Room. "Simulation Complete." Echoed through a speaker. Pyrrha ignored it as she dropped her rifle-spear, the barrel still smoking from the numerous shots fired. The door to the room opened and closed, and she looked to the side. Standing there was the remaining three members of her team. "Pyrrha, are you alright?" Jaune said.

With her voice breaking slightly, Pyrrha answered them. "I... I don't know."

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter and after this, I hope none of you will be calling Darren, 'Edgy'. As always, leave a PM or a review to me if you have any ideas or comments on the story. I write for your input on these things.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm terribly sorry for the wait. I have only recently finished a school project that i've been working on. Until the Christmas break, you can probably expect one, maybe two chapters. If I'm feeling real bored, you might get one during the break. If you like the chapter, please leave a PM or review with your comments or suggestions. And until next time, enjoy.**

As I said before, Beacon is an incredibly boring place outside of combat class and the scarce team exercises I kept hearing about from Second and Third years. I wasn't looking forward to being anchored to a group of teenagers in a forest for hours at a time. The thought of it made me groan inwardly and made me contemplate just ending my team now to save me the trouble.

I decided against it, focusing my attention elsewhere. The Beacon Armory was in this school somewhere, and I didn't mean the training one. You see, I had taken the soul of a high ranking staff of the schools at one point by chance, and had learned of the Lock-Boxes. The Lock-Boxes were impenetrable rooms holding a large amount of food and water as well as weaponry. It was meant to act a stronghold in the event of the school falling, and was to hold until another school could drive away the threat.

I didn't care about the rations or ammo, I was after something more fun. You see, the Lock-Boxes are also home to the most experimental weaponry in the school's home kingdom. Massively destructive missiles or rail-guns were stored there, deemed to dangerous for storage anywhere else. While I might be able to bring this school down myself, those weapons would certainly make more impressive fireworks.

All of that was well and good, but finding it was hard. Only the most prestigious staff within the school knew the locations of the Lock-Boxes, and even the high ranking staff only knew of its existence, not the location. I would have been able to find the Lock-Box with ease by following the trail of aura that all creatures passively leave behind. Key-word, 'Passively'.

The staff that enter the Lock-Box know how to suppress their aura, leading me to many dead-ends of aura trails that could have been miles of maze walking before they got to the Lock-Box. The only other option I had was to take the knowledge. But again, these people were elite in their aura use. Oh how I yearned to waltz into the Staff Quarters and start slashing until I got the information I wanted, but that would ruin my cover.

Because of their aura use, I couldn't passively take the info either. The one time I tried on Glynda, her aura frilled into spikes of defense the moment I touched it. I swore she looked right at me for a moment. I stayed cloaked before slipping out slowly. That was also out of question.

This issue is what brought me to the roof of the Dormitories in the middle of the night, meditating and thinking hard on how to resolve this issue. In the back of my mind, I also continuously reviewed the aberration that was Headmaster Ozpin's soul. It still troubled me that the miasma of death and the light of life both shrouded this man. I hated it.

"Hey there, you awake?" A light voice asked me, pulling me from my meditation and making me aware of the light behind my eyelids. Daylight? I had to find out, and with determination and minimal effort, I opened my eyes to see the stupidly grinning face of Ruby Rose blocking the sunrise. "What are you doing here?" I asked her, slightly annoyed with how close she was.

"Oh, well, it's Saturday and I just got my cast off. The doctors told me to go easy on it for a bit, but I figured we could at least start training now." I had promised that, hadn't I? Maybe this was the type of distraction I needed for the time being. Yes, this would be fun. "Meet me in the training room in ten minutes. I have to prepare the first lesson."

"Alright." She said, and climbed down the building and back through the window. I followed, swinging from a nearby tree branch and into the room, landing with a roll. "Hey there buddy. Haven't had a chance to talk to you yet. Where you headed?" Yang asked me, standing in my way. "I'm going to train your sister. You're welcome to come. It's gonna be fun."

I could almost see the skeptical look at how I said 'fun' but I could care less. I lightly moved the girl out of my way before exiting the room and beginning a low jog down the hall. A door next to me opened and I saw Pyrrha for a moment before she slammed it shut again when she saw me. I laughed knowing the effect I had on her. One down I supposed.

I entered the training room and walked past the few students that were spending their time here rather than in the city or with another doing something else. Most of them barely spared a glance in my direction before continuing their exercises. That was fine by me, less interruptions. I was about to be able to hit someone and then yell at them about it. No one was going to interrupt my fun.

My destination was somewhere towards the back of the room behind a heavy metal door. I pushed it open and made sure no one was inside before examining the hexagonal pattern on every inch of this place that glowed faintly blue in contrast to the silvery steel. This would suit all of the needs to rigorously and creatively torture the red clad girl.

Three dials resided in the corner of the room and I turned them to Rock Plains at Mid-day with no enemy. With everything set, I stepped outside the door again and waited for Ruby and possibly her sister to show up.

I only had to wait a few more minutes before the sliding metal door opened with an excited Ruby and smiling Yang walked in. I silently waved at them to follow me into the room. They looked at me questioningly before entering and I shut the door. "So what are we doing first. Are you gonna show me how to do that After-Image thing? Ooh, or maybe how to make a tornado by running fast." She said, nearly jumping in excitement.

"Take off your weapons and stand in the middle of the room. You too Blondie." I said. Yang looked at me questioningly. "Why me? I'm not being trained." I laughed slightly. "Yes you are. Now weapons, off." I commanded. She glared at me momentarily. They both removed their respective weapons and stood in the center of the room. "What now?" Yang asked me. I held up a hand and spoke. "Start Simulation indefinitely." I commanded. With ripples on every inch the scenery changed to a high rocky plains in mid-day without a cloud in the sky. I could feel the rocks beneath my feet.

I held up my fist with two sets of long needles appearing in between each of my fingers, numbering six all together. "It's quite simple really. I'm going to train Ruby's speed outside of running by deflecting any attacks and periodically sticking these into her. When she's got six in her, she loses. You're there for distraction support." I let them take that in for a second.

"Well, how do I win?" Ruby asked me. I smiled wickedly, something Ruby and Yang were about to attribute to being a bad thing. "Hit me. Once." And with that, I put my left arm behind my back and charged in for the surprise. It may have worked for Ruby, but Yang had the exact same idea, coming at me with her fist pulled back. I raised by right arm to catch the blow, feinting and letting my arm fall away as her fist came in contact with my palm.

I spun and threw one of my needles into the back of her neck below the spinal-cord and she paused for a second. "Gotta be quicker than that Yang." I mocked as she dug the needle out and threw it on the ground, the object dispersing as another appeared in my fist. "Yah!" I heard from behind me, and bent at a 90 degree angle forwards. Ruby's kick sailed over my head and I straightened up.

"Surprise attacks only work if you're quiet." I said. She landed before reeling around and trying her luck at punching me. She had some of the poorest form I had ever seen and I easily brushed aside her blows with my one arm before stepping under one of her punches and planting a needle in her shoulder. "Ow!" She yelped from the pinprick, entirely expecting it to have been stopped by her aura. She tried too pull it out, but I made this one barbed and it was stuck.

"Faster Ruby." I said as I kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying a few feet and sprawling onto her back against the rough rocks. I then knowingly jumped, feeling that Yang was behind me again. With her target suddenly gone her momentum carried her forwards, almost tripping. I landed softly on the rocks and waited as Ruby got back up and sprinted at me, petals flying off her form.

I increased my own reaction time in kind, mentally placing a reasonable limit for training purposes. She came at me arms raised in a double hay-maker, but I juked around her punching her in her back once before she spun around readily attacking again in a flurry of fists. I was aware that Yang was in front of me, waiting. "I told you that we were practicing speed outside of running. So that isn't going to work." I slapped aside another of her fists before planting a second needle in her wrist. Once again she tried to tug it out, but it was stuck. I shook my head before punching upwards into her chin and sending her a few feet into the air.

Under her, Yang charged me again, her form much better than her sister's. She was slow, but I found myself having to put more effort into blocking and deflecting the blows she used as there was more force behind them. "Good use of force, but it is all over the place. You cannot pelt a brick wall. You must pierce it. Like so." I used both arms and punched her in the gut three times in rapid succession, seeing the look of pain spread as each blow weakened the aura in that area and hurt more.

Her hair caught ablaze lightly and her eyes began to shift into a red, her semblance activating. She threw a strong hook at me, but I held a needle outwards and it stuck between her knuckled as she hit my hand. "Agh!" She yelled, having the needle hit such a sensitive spot. I kicked her before ducking under another punch that Ruby had thrown.

"Activate your semblance Ruby, but not in your legs. Use it to move in place." She grunted with effort as she threw more sloppy punches my way and I stuck the third needle into the crook of her left elbow. She didn't bother trying to dig it out, and kept attacking. Yang joined in, forcing me to stretch to the edges of my self-placed limitations in order to keep up.

"I don't know how!" She yelled at me, lashing out with a wild kick that I spun around and used the momentum to slam Yang in the face, knocking her back a bit. "That is because you have never tried. Plant your legs, feel your aura, and make it move!" I yelled, switching my limits to speed alone to more than match the speeds I had seen her move.

She didn't react fast enough and I shoulder-blasted her into the rock ground again and she let out a groan, ignoring the fourth needle I threw into her shin muscle. This time I didn't give her a chance to get up, gliding forwards and kicking her in the side, throwing her roughly to the left a few feet. She landed with a groan, rolling over to push herself on her feet.

"Go easy on her!" Yang yelled, jumping in front of me and throwing punches that any professional would be proud of. "Maybe you should be harder on her." I countered, catching the fiery blonde's fist and twisting until she screamed, and then throwing her. She landed on her feet unsteadily, holding her wrist. Ruby had gotten up at this point and rushed me.

I caught one of her hands as she threw a punch, catching the second just a moment later. We stood with our faces a foot apart, and I saw anger on her face. Good. "How can you expect to save someone if you can't even hit me once?" I said in a condescending voice. This only served to fan the flame of her anger, and ignite something more. Determination.

I had found that the memories of the souls I had taken had one memory in common with their training. You could not unlock your semblance unless you needed to. Power was born of determination and need. You could not run faster without a destination, or hit harder without a target. You needed a reason to become stronger, faster, smarter.

I had sparked Ruby's determination, and given her the destination, target, and need to become all those things. I simply knew the right buttons to push. I knew she wanted to help people who couldn't help themselves, just like in the stories. Childish, but useful. She jerked out of my grip and threw another punch, this one sailing faster than before, and coming close to landing on my cheek.

Luckily I moved my head to the side in time, and planted my fifth needle in her other side. She growled at me, throwing more attacks. I block or dodged them, sneering all the while. "How can you claim to make the world better like the stories if you can't even write your own. Fight!" I yelled, feeling the pressure on my palms grow greater a she continued attacking me.

"Who are you to say that I can't!" She yelled back at me, and I saw it. The glint in her eyes, that inner flame. I pushed far enough and hard enough, and I brought something to the surface. The change was both immediate and drastic.

Her silver eyes glowed slightly as eyes tend to do when reaching the extremes of one's semblance. Her attacks became faster and stronger, and so much more advanced. Her soft punches had turned to hammer blows strengthened not by muscle, but velocity. I pushed to the ends of my self-set limits of my reaction speed and saw her movements.

She would punch twice in rapid succession at me and I would try to counter, only to see her side-step and duck before tilting on her hand and lashing out with her legs. When I jumped away from the attack she would plant her legs and be right next to me again, myself feeling the wind off her attacks. On top of that, each of her movements were wreathed in rose petals that exploded off of her with each muscle movement.

She punched me again from below and I grabbed her fist, my mistake. With newfound acrobatics she pulled her smaller frame with that arm, charging in for another punch at my nose that I barely blocked. I still held a needle, but I wanted to see how far this could be pushed before she passed out.

"That's it. You feel that power?" I asked. She stood still in a position with her palm at me and a fist pulled back as she breathed heavily, rose petals still drifting off of her. Without answering, her eyes glinted again and she was in front of me again, much faster this time. I even saw the beginnings of an After-Image left behind her, and smiled. When I finally brought this school down, she might actually be fun to fight.

She threw a punch that moved the air with a crack like a whip, and I broke my limits to move out of the way. I turned to the offensive, throwing a flurry of punches with an added 2% of what I was just fighting with. She still kept up in spite of me just adding the power of another hunter into myself. Every punch and every kick I threw was dodged and countered upon.

I caught her fist, knowing of the new force put behind them via velocity, and threw her into the air, taking speed out of the equation. I tossed my final needle at her with high speeds, but it never impacted. Instead she caught it, and snapped the false metal in her fingers when she landed. I saw a glare in her eyes that screamed danger to lesser things. I was not lesser, but I put my guard up in my limited state.

She came forwards, faster yet again and threw a final punch, the barest hints of a pressure cone forming. I didn't have the time to allocate more speed and barely moved out of the way. Barely.

After the punch was thrown, she stuck in that position, heaving for breath and glaring at me as I reached up and touched my cheek. Blood. That punch moved at high enough speeds that the barest of contact split my skin like a knife. I grinned. Oh yes, she would become entertaining indeed. "I win... Right?" She asked, words pausing between heaving breaths as her form dropped and her eyes lost their glow. She swayed in place slightly.

"Yes, you win. I am surprised you managed to unlock that layer of your semblance to such a degree in so little time." I told her, and she smiled as her swaying became slowly more pronounced. "I may have gotten a little angry." She said, sounding slightly embarrassed. I saw one of her knees buckle for a split second. "Anger is by far one of the best motivators. Also Yang, catch your sister." I said as Ruby fell backwards and Yang leaped forwards to catch her.

"Whoa there. I got ya sis." She said, but Ruby was already out cold. She looked back up at me. "You think you can get these needles out?" She asked. I looked into open air. "End Simulation." I said loudly, seeing the sky fall away and feeling the rocks under my feet turn to smooth metal. I then snapped my fingers and the barbed pins stuck in Ruby dissipated, leaving five, slightly bleeding pinpricks that were left unhealed by her lack of aura.

Yang slung her unconscious sister over her shoulder and we walked out of the training room and back to the dorms, a slower pace for Ruby's sake, as Yang seemed to think that Ruby deserved some semblance of rest after that. She would probably wake up soon. Her aura wasn't at zero, just very close by my measurements. I have to thank you for that. I never dreamed that Ruby would be able to manage something like that. At least, not for a long time." She said.

"Dreaming tends to be..." My words ran off as an idea finally clicked into my head. Dreams. DREAMS. That was the answer to my problem. "Think you can get Ruby back by yourself?" I asked. She nodded. "Where are you headed off to? You haven't spoken to any of us since the year started, aside from the few words when we pass you by."

"I just figured out a problem and I need to do some work." I said, starting to walk faster and leave before I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I don't know why you seem to want to avoid us, but after this problem of yours, we're all gonna get a team dinner or something, get some time together. "Her eyes had an edge to them and I knew this wasn't and argument you could normally win. Teenagers.

"Tomorrow night, deal?" I said, and she nodded again. "Alright, but I'm picking the place. Need to get me another strawberry sunrise anyways." She said and i chuckled a bit. She glared at me. "What, gonna say that I'm too young?" I chuckled more.

"No. I was going to say that your drink is weak. I prefer Good ol' Sailor Vodka." She looked at me strangely and laughed. "I'll have to try it sometime." I nodded and ran off, making a hat-tip gesture behind me. The training room was pretty far from any exits to the building, but I liked a good run. It made me appreciate just how much fun the wind in your face is when you have a body to feel it.

After about five minutes of a steady jog, I finally managed to find my way to an acceptable window, opened it, and took a swan dive out of it. I once again caught the edge of the window and flung myself up, digging my fingers into the brick. I hauled myself up the side of the building in a hundred-foot climb. At the top, I noticed that the sun was still halfway in the sky, a good few hours before sunset, and probably more before my opportunity arose.

I had some time to kill, and I supposed I _was_ thirsty after talking about my favorite drink. Yeah, a drink would be nice, although I would need to consume enough alcohol to kill a small god before I got drunk. Nevertheless, it tasted good.

I looked down from the rooftop I was on and unfurled my jacket, hardening it once again into a wing-suit before jumping, propelled by a purple wave of force. Ah, the wind in my face once again. I knew that if I was human that I would be an adrenaline junky. With a grin on my face, I began flying in the general direction of Vale, a far trip just to get a good drink.

* * *

After a good thirty minute flight and another thirty minutes wandering the streets and discreetly breaking something, I found my way into a bar name, 'Lion's Den'. When I entered, I saw why. The beast of a man, and I mean that literally because of him being a faunus. stood behind the bar with a mane around his neck. He was also at least 6'7 and 300 pounds of walking muscle with arms like a stake-driver and green eyes that looked like they could cut down a gang leader with a glance.

The building itself was nice, an old wood and stone look with wall lights that were made to look like fire. Quite accurate if I must say. They even had speakers to broadcast the crackling sound. There was an actual fireplace on one wall as well.

The bar had bark over it like it was the side of a massive tree and the seats were made mostly of stumps. A pool table sat in one corner and a cards table in the other. An assortment of bottles sat on wooden shelves behind the man.

"Nice place you have here." I said, knowing he would be hospitable if I was. He grunted and spoke in a growling voice. "It better be. Fought tooth an nail to get this place up and running good. Not many people like a faunus-run establishment." I nodded as if I understood his troubles. "Well hopefully you don't mind a human in your bar."

He laughed a bit. "Human, faunus. Hell, I'd serve a Beowolf a cup of ale if he was paying." I liked this guy's attitude. "Well, I'm looking for something strong. You got Good ol' Sailor Vodka?" He got a look in his eyes. "You sure you want that, I've seen some champion drinkers get shitfaced after just a cup of that." I nodded. "It's my favorite, and I'm certain I could drink any five of them under the table and then finish their drinks." He chuckled at me, but it wasn't out of comedic value.

Alright. Have yourself a seat and I'll pour you a glass. Rocks or no?" He said. "Rocks of course." I told him as I sat down, taking out a crumple of paper and absentmindedly flattening it. An edged glass thunked in front of me with a dangerously clear liquid that had a few ice cubes floating in it. "Twelve Lien." He stated. I nodded, taking out the bills and handing them to him.

Where did I get the money, you ask? Well that thing I broke, you might know it as an ATM. That about sums up the story.

I took a long, slow drink from my glass and chewed the ice I had, relishing the burn of the liquid as it went down my throat. "That's the stuff." I said quietly as I sipped slowly after that, simply watching and enjoying the fire. I think that it is bred into existence that the sound of a nice fire calms you.\

The man watched me with an open jaw as the drink seemed to not affect me in the slightest.

* * *

After an hour, another glass, and a refueling of the fire, I left Leon's bar under the promise that I would come back again. He watched me leave, cleaning a glass and saying that he had a bit of a story to tell and more than a few bets to win. It amused me.

What didn't amuse me was getting back to Beacon. I didn't fancy the idea of propelling myself upwards for half an hour to get back, nor did I like the thought of walking back. Instead I looked to hitch a ride on ship. Fortunately, there is usually a Bullhead drop-off on the edges of town.

I made it to the right area, slipping the driver 20 Lien and grabbing hold of the roof, slapping it twice to tell him to take off. With a faint grumble of 'Psychopath' the engines fired on and took me over the Red and Emerald Forests. The sun was now starting to set lightly, but that was fine. I had some heavy meditation to slip into in order to accomplish my goal.

Ten minutes later I was over the edge of Beacon Cliffs and slapping the top of my aircraft, signalling my jump. With strength in my legs, I pushed off and spread my jacket, beginning a glide to the Dormitory building. I only hoped the pilot wouldn't be mad about the boot-shaped imprints on his hull. They liked that kind of thing, right?

Another two minutes and me and the roof were about to become very close friends. Not wanting to explain the broken building, I expanded my jacket to create drag and slow me down to a reasonable speed. Just below break-neck speeds.

I slammed into the roof, rolling and forcing myself to stop before rolling right off the edge. Then I would have to climb back up. By forcing myself, I meant digging my fingers enough to leave trenches in the gravel while my ankles dangled off the roof. Just a bit too much velocity.

What, just because I'm good doesn't mean I'm good at free-falling.

Sighing, I hauled the rest of myself over the edge and stood up, getting my bearings. I didn't exactly _need_ to be on the dorm building, but it would help if I became caught up in meditation and one of my team needed to wake me up. So I went on another roof hopping adventure to find my way back.

Ah, same old roof. I had a clear view of Ozpin's tower from here, which was exactly what I needed. After finding myself in my usual meditative spot, I began to draw. In the gravel, and partially into the cement, I carved a seven-point lotus star, and surrounded it by another circle. Inside the heptagon created, I used the sides to layer it twice more into the center, all the while the lines glowed a purple grey with my energy.

After I completed my work, I took a seat in the center, and started relaxing. My eyes closed and my muscles unwound. I soon began to feel detached from my body as the darkness surrounded me. The only difference was that I could see my drawing, curving upwards into the third dimension and evolving. surrounding me.

I let the energy overtake me, and fully detached from my body, leaving no traces except the body itself. When I looked upon the world and saw souls, I still remained semi-human in nature. Now though, I returned to to a state closer to that of when I was a force, and not a consciousness. My mind expanded, and i began to see... Things...

It is impossible to describe most of what I saw, but there were the marks left behind where a souls had died. There was an impressive amount in this school ground, but the mountain absolutely _glowed_ , but it was also dark. _Something_ was in there, but I would leave it for now.

This was only with my eyes closed, but I opened them. The world came into a focus that would burn the mind of any mortal within minutes, but it provided truth beyond that of what I could normally see. In this state, I could look upon a soul and see who they were, who they would become, what they were like, who they had met. I could see when they were born. I could not however, see how they would die. I got an inkling about it, but only that.

In front of me was my own body, eyes closed and marks burning brightly. I looked down, and what I was had shape. I was a black that somehow radiated the deepest of violets. My body was tall, yet lean. My hands were skeletal, and my body covered in rags that hid my form and swayed in a non-existent breeze, making one unsure of where they ended and my body began.

My face I knew, didn't exist. One might see nothing, no features whatsoever. One more connected to the world would see different. They would see emptiness that was conscious and malicious.

I turned away from my body and towards the tower. Ozpin was in there, awake, for now. Once again, his soul bothered me. I could see flashes of who he might be and who he might have been, but they were all different people. Different faces and names and places. Different... Times?

Unperturbed, I began my walk towards his tower. With striding, gliding steps, I strolled off of the edge, and continued over thin air. My footsteps hollow, and this form unseen. Sweet dreams Ozpin.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello Everyone, just an author note here. I just wanted to apologize for the lack of updates recently. I have hit a huge spout of writers block, and every-time i try to put something down, it turns into poorly made crap.**

 **Don't worry though, I will make up for this with a huge chapter. Upwards of 10,000 words. Maybe even upwards of 12,000.**


	8. Chapter 8

I felt more connected to the world than I had felt in weeks as I strode across the air in the direction of Ozpin's tower. If Death was a storm, then I was the eye, the source from which the entirety of the storm's power came from. Barely contained.

My body felt strong as I experimentally clenched my hands again and again. But it was a different strength. I didn't feel as if I could fell a building with a single punch or catch an anti-aircraft round with my chest. What I felt was _influence._ The sensation of being behind an unlimited force such as death. I was eternal, and infinite.

Being the catalyst for something like that is indescribable. I could look at a man, a conqueror of civilizations even. And he would die. It would be the smallest, easiest thing for me. I could snuff out a life and nothing or nobody could do anything to stop me.

However, none of this was new to me. Someone immune to me however, was new. I liked surprises, but this one was a sword in my back. I had to find out why this man was untouchable by death. How had he resisted my force, even if it was unfocused. When I killed him, he would die forever. But i had to figure out what he knew first.

I was at his tower already, and I didn't notice until I had passed through his wall and was staring at him at his desk, filling out paperwork with a look of pure contempt on his face. I could tell from his expression and the way his aura and or auras sat, he loved the monotony of it. He wanted to simply sit at his large clockwork desk inside of his dull grey office, and wait the years away. He would never get bored.

He could stay there until he died, and die with a smile on his face.

That was, if he could die. That's what I was here to find out, but I still had some waiting to do. He was awake now, and in order to enter his dreams, he must be asleep. That could take hours if the stack of papers yet to fill was anything to go by. So I stepped forward... And he looked up.

I froze, un-moving as a stone as I swore that he looked directly at me. Each second ticked by like an hour before he sighed and put his pen down. "I've met you enough times now, that it would be rude of me not to recognize you. Reveal yourself to me." To say that I was shocked to my core would be an understatement. The fact that Ozpin not only recognized me, but could detect me in this form, was beyond any expectations I could have had. Beyond extraordinary.

I stayed hidden, but let my voice project. In human form, it may have sounded perturbed. This voice however, was just another layer of the illusion.

"Sleep now. It wouldn't do good for someone to walk in with you talking to yourself." I spoke. The sound of it reverberated around the room in a deep whisper that was clearly heard. He pondered this for a moment. "Very well. Follow me into my world." He said, leaning backwards and placing his hands upon his chest. I could tell that the moment his head hit the headrest, that he had fallen into deep REM Sleep.

I traveled from my side of the room and to his sleeping body, glowing green and grey, with the same rainbow of colors underneath. Standing this close now, I could see something strange. The green and grey I had come to know as his aura, were not blended. They were mingled together, but distinctly separate. What did that mean. I supposed I find out in just a moment. With an effort of focus, I placed my hand upon Ozpin's forehead and entered his dreams.

The effect was immediate and overwhelming. I had entered dreams before, but they were the usual clutter of a single mind and a single dream-scape. Ozpin's body though, contained hundreds of different colors and shades, the possibility of that many fragments of souls entered my mind. All of them dreaming and with their own clutter.

I had to fight through it as if I were swimming through a junkyard within a Catagory-5 tornado. I knew that if I dug deep enough then I would hit the dream-scape. Ozpin was obviously waiting there for me. So I pushed and tore through the storm of thoughts and places and feelings, retreating into the silence of my own mind for shelter.

By the time I had fought through it all, I was shaking in my own mind at the effort of it and had to quickly compose myself once I realized that I was falling. I was in a clear sky over grassy plains that were bordered by the ocean. My body, suddenly feeling exposed, was falling near the barrier between them. As I neared the ground, I let myself fall. Fighting wouldn't do me any good now.

Shortly before I impacted the ground, it was as if my entire body became shrouded by a bungee-cord. My fall slowed and just before I started going back up, the cord broke. I landed softly on my feet. The grass bent lightly under my boots. "Exhilarating, isn't it?" An older voice asked me. I looked in front of me and standing, staring at the ocean, was Ozpin.

I recognized Ozpin and his green aura, but there was another next to him. A copy that resided in a grey suit with silver, slightly longer hair. He held the grey aura from earlier. "How do you keep your mind?" I asked him, noting that my voice did not echo or reverberate the way it should have. A glance downwards showed me that my flowing, flickering rags of clothes were still and solid. I was weighed down here.

A hunter's mind was already a fortress, but on the level that Ozpin was, he was a kingdom whose walls would never be cracked. And so it weighed me down, akin to being underwater. I was not as powerful here as I should have been.

"I've had many, _many_ years to become adjusted to it." Ozpin said, and turned around. With him, the silver-haired man turned as well. I could see his chisled and iron features that were accompanied by a cold red glare. He wore a silver suit and both hands were grasped around a solid metal cane. He was old. At least sixty years in age.

"How many years?" I asked. "Would you believe me if I told you that I was one of the first? I wasn't one of those that discovered dust, but I was the first to control it. By the same extent, I was the first to unlock a semblance. I'm sure that if you looked hard enough then you could see." He said. I couldn't though. I was dimmed here, limited.

"Unbind me and reveal your soul for me to see." I said in commanding tone. As the words left me, the weight lifted itself and Ozpin's form faded away. The silver man remained solid, unaffected. That didn't matter yet.

I searched through Ozpin's aura and soul for two things. His age, and my mark. By mark, mean that literally. When a person dies, there is a mark left on their soul as they move on to the afterlife. A skeletal hand with fingers digging in. The angel of death pulling you away from life. And I found the mark.

Actually, I found **_thousands._** There were thousands of interlocking hand-prints showered across his soul. The mark of death, the center of the death miasma, there were too many. Even just two was too many.

Beyond the marks, I could see his age. It angered me.

I was brought into existence when the first man died. I remember so clearly the feeling of bringing a soul out of a body for the first time. I was barely more than a man then. I only got stronger as more died. Ozpin was within a few generations of that first man. Within a single century. That's how close our own ages were.

"How are you this old? How have you evaded death for so long?" This time the silver man spoke, and he started with a deep and gruff laugh. "He has evaded nothing. The gods simply grab his soul before it reaches an afterlife, and puts it in another body. I would know." I took that in.

If the gods were involved in this man's fate, then it really was a toss-up as to whether I could actually kill him, and keep him dead. I was a god on my own, but there were more beings of power out there like me. More forces. If they wanted Ozpin alive for that long, he had to be important.

"Where do you fit into all of this? Who are you and why do the gods themselves wish for you to live?" I asked him, my voice rising a bit. "I am a character in many of children's stories. One with magic to back my own aura. I was once the Wizard who gave the maidens their powers. As for why the gods bring me back each and every time, it is because I keep failing." He stopped there.

"Failing to do what?" I hissed at him. He sighed, looking his age for once. "I have failed countless times to rid humanity of the Grimm and Salem. Each time she wins by the smallest of margins, and humanity must restart with the history books all but wiped away." I knew all of this. I knew that humanity and Salem have been at odds for millennium. I just didn't expect Ozpin to be the center of it all for the humans.

"I have answered all of your questions this far. Now answer me only one. What do you plan to gain from this information?" I stared at him and the silver man whom it was now obvious was the original soul of this body. I didn't know. Even with this information, I didn't know if I could kill him. What if I did? Would it end the cycle, or perhaps the gods would find a new pawn for humanity?

"I have no idea what to do with this. What I do know however, is that it is never good to see Death, even a part of me. Now though, you and everything you love, have my full attention." I watched Ozpin's face drop slightly and felt the dream-scape turn hostile. Quickly I faded out of his world, bypassing the clutter of minds on my exit. Faintly I could hear him yelling. "You can't take my school! I won't let you!"

"Like you have a choice." I said, letting the words take my place as I was ejected from his mind and into his office once more. Even the moment I opened my eyes, I could see his aura prepping to scatter defensively, and I forced mine over his first. It took effort, not having enough time to gather my power, but I successfully repressed Ozpin's aura so that he couldn't wake up for the next few hours.

I still wasn't about to take any chances. Ozpin had surprised me before, so I left. Through his walls and back into the air, I traveled to my body. On the trip, I noticed that it had become day time. The sun had just begun to rise. And what a view it was from atop these cliffs. The orange and rad stretched on for miles, bordering the horizon in a half circle. Unfortunately this meant that I had only an hour or so before the rest of my 'team' woke up. I liked to catch breakfast on most days.

That and the fact that my body was lying on the roof without a soul in it, surrounded by a marking that would most likely kill anyone who touched it. Although by the inactivity of their auras, none of them were awake yet. I had time, and I wasn't going to squander that. Time was a resource.

I jumped off my so called 'path' that I had been running on and slowly fell to the roof, landing with a simply crouch and a hollow _thunk_. My body sat in front of me in the same position I had left it, surrounded by the same glowing lotus. It was a simple act to step back into my body, letting my senses drown in mortality and my connection sever.

For a few moments I felt as if underwater with how limited I was. It passed, and I was left sitting in my markings. Sighing, I stood up and began to create seven more lines. They originated from each of the points and gathered in the center. With the point created, I stepped over the convergence and watched the entire sign splinter and crack as the energy was destroyed and dispersed, before it reabsorbed into my body once more.

Even as a being of my category, absorbing that much energy was still a small rush, and I felt invigorated by it. I couldn't do anything with this energy however, because there simply wasn't time to do so. It would be best for me to simply mark out the next steps of my plan in meditation.

So what if I meditate a lot. The monks were onto something there. There's a reason i let them live as long as they do.

So I sat down once again, and closed my mind. My plans had been going great so far, excluding the problem of Ozpin's supposed immortality. Other than that, it was great. I had broken a champion, ignited the true power of some girl, gained the trust of just about everyone that mattered... Okay, excluding Glynda and Pyrrha.

Again, great. My cover as Darren Bentley was secure and was going to stay that way. I might be known as incredibly strong and fast, but I hadn't heard anyone say 'unnatural' yet. With the semester also nearing its end in just a week, I would have all the time I needed to find the LockBox.

The LockBox. I wasn't 100% what was in there yet, but I was sure that it would be something fun. Who doesn't love tampering with a loaded nuke? Just me? Alright.

Either way, once I found that I would commit its location to memory and then wait for a good time to execute my attack. Preferably during an event where a lot of people would be able to see it. Hell, if I could get the effects of my plan to hit some of the other Kingdoms then I would go for it. Who knows, maybe I won't stop at one kingdom. I had always been a fan of the whole, 'humanity needs a reset' idea.

Mass genocide. The thought put a smile on my face.

"Hey Darren. What you doing up here?" And just like that my smile fell and my eyes opened to see the ever innocent face of Ruby Rose bent down at an angle to look at me. The stupid smile remained present on her face. "I'm thinking." I said.

"Oh. What are you thinking about?" She asked.

 _About six to seven different ways to kill you. My favorite is chest tackling you off this roof._

"Nothing important. What are _you_ doing up here?" I asked her. She straightened up. "Yang told me to get you. Apparently you promised to come down and get to know us today. I kinda wanted to as well. We really know nothing about you." She said, a little hope in her voice, as well as an undertone of apprehension.

"I only agreed to dinner, but why not. I've nothing better to do. Breakfast?" I spoke. She nodded. "I'll go tell them you're coming down." Before I could say anything she sprinted to the edge and carefully stepped down to jump back in the room.

"Idiot." I said under my breath, not really sure who it was directed at. I just sealed my fate to a day wasted getting to know teenagers. They hadn't even lived long enough to have anything interesting happen. Just how was I supposed to resist killing these people for an entire day.

With a sigh of annoyance I followed Ruby's steps and jumped, turning and swinging into the room without a warning. My mistake as I almost dive-kicked Weiss as she got out of bed. "Wha- Imbecile! Watch where you're going!" She yelled, partially on instinct.

"Curtains. Couldn't see. Not my fault." I said in a monotone voice, only serving to irritate hew more. She looked like she was about to say something, most likely a slue of insults, but Blake stopped her. "Nice of you to join us. Breakfast?" She said, gesturing towards the door.

"Yes, I suppose that is in order." I said, hiding my irritation well. I needed to make them think I liked them, or at least didn't hate them. A circle of people defending me if shit hit the fan would be nice.

"To the mess hall, troops!" Ruby yelled, acting much younger than she was. That childlike innocence would only make it more fun to bend and stretch her soul until it snapped. We needed to have another training session, this time without needles. Knives maybe? Perhaps razor-wire.

Everyone filed out of the room, looking to have a nice peaceful breakfast. With Ruby and Yang though, that probably wasn't going to happen. Oh well, if they annoyed me enough then I would use both knives AND razor-wire. That sounded like fun, and it was that thought that kept me sane against Ruby's constant rambling's on the way to the cafeteria. I just hoped that with food in her mouth that she would talk less.

I was wrong. She talked just as much as she wolfed down pancakes and spoke among us. It seemed to bother the heiress even more than me though, even to the point of more than a few elbows to the ribs and shin-kicking. She ignored them in favor of talking.

"Yeah, Patch was a great place to be, especially in the winter. What about you Darren, where do you come from." I froze for the barest hints of a second, my eggs hanging off my fork. "You might not believe me, but me and my family used to live out in the wastes of Mistral. Oh what was it called?" I pretended to ponder the thought, letting them create my past partially.

"The Twisted Ice-Fangs?" Weiss said incredulously. I pointed at her. "That's the place. I loved the summers there. Almost got above the negatives a few times. Great auroras." She still looked at me with this look on her face. Meanwhile Yang began to talk again. "Hey, I actually know that place. There's no way you actually lived out there."

"Really, cause I still have the scar from falling off one of the fangs." I said, creating a large scar on my back that they hadn't seen yet. It was simple skin changing, and I turned to let them see. It started at the base of my neck and I pointed to halfway down my spine. "That's where it ended. Hurt like hell, but I probably shouldn't have been climbing without a harness."

They stopped doubting me after that, but Blake had some questions for me. "I've seen the way you fight, and what Ruby and Yang told me about your training, you had to learn that somewhere." She said, finally looking up from her book.

"You're absolutely right. I trained under a man named Hazel Rainart in hand-to-hand combat, a woman named Eileen in swords, and finally a man named Shaw. He taught me everything I know about aura, even to mimic semblances." Weiss choked on her food when I said this, and we all looked at her. "That's _*cough*_ That's impossible."

"Is it now?" I said, grinning as I summoned one of her own glyphs in my hand and pressed it to the table. The resulting action elicited a scream of surprise across the cafeteria as a random girl just caught her breakfast with her face and walked away to clean up. I chuckled while she scowled at me while Ruby leaned in. "How in the world did he teach you to do that!?" She half screamed.

"A _**lot**_ of life or death situations. Basically I had to study a semblance for months, figuring out how to work my aura to it and everything I could do with it. Then he shoved me into a horde of Grimm and waited for the bloodbath." Ruby's excitement seemed to have died down and she had a frown on her face. "But, how did he know if you'd unlock the semblance.?"

"He didn't." Yang was scowling this time. "And what if you died?" She asked seriously. I shrugged. "He really didn't care either way. You see, if I had even the slightest notion that he might come in and save me, it wouldn't have been life or death." Yang shook her head.

"That's just insane. I mean, I'm a fan of the whole 'trial by fire' thing, but that's too far." I shrugged once more, taking another bite and finishing my eggs. "Worked, didn't it?" I said as I summoned a flame in my free hand before turning it into an exact replica of ice, the moisture to make it taken from Weiss' glass of water, which was now bone dry. She huffed in annoyance.

"Ooh, pretty." Someone said behind me, and I recognized the voice. Nora Valkyrie was now hovering her head around me, scoping out the piece of Fire-Ice from every angle. In the blink of an eye she picked it up. I waited until she held it up to the light before reigniting the residual aura in it into a small combustion. With a yelp she jumped back from it, unknowingly falling into Ren, who was standing behind her.

The two of them fell on the ground and a shard of ice hit Nora between the eyes. It apparently had an interesting pattern as her ADHD riddled mind latched onto it as her hands did the same, and the stupid grin returned to her face. "Ren look, exploding ice!" She yelled, whipping it at someone in the cafeteria. Another yell of pain and questioning was heard as well as a disappointed noise from Nora as it didn't explode again.

"Please get off of me." Ren said from the floor. Nora jumped off, once again hurting Ren by using his chest as a spring-board before dragging him up with her and off somewhere. Again, teenagers. Although Nora was definitely beyond that kind of crazy. I pitied the boy she drug around.

"Do you think you could teach us to do that?" Ruby asked. I shrugged. "I'm no teacher. I can help evolve your semblances for sure. Teaching you what Shaw taught me, I don't think so." I said, bullshitting my answer. The truth of it was that the strain of multiple semblances would probably destroy their aura, leaving them nothing but a well-trained civilian.

"Evolve? How could you evolve Glyphs, or Shadow-Clones, let alone Yang's semblance?" Blake asked me, setting her book down. She was now interested. "Glyphs would be as simply as learning bigger, more complex words. It is like Rune-work, which is what Glyphs were based on."

"What is Rune-work? I've never heard of it." Weiss asked me. So many questions with these people. Must not kill...

I began to draw a small sign on the table in my black power as it glowed faintly, throwing off white embers. It started as a square, then a circle inside of that. Within that was a decagon. As I finished, I slammed my hand over the air above it and the trays on the table began to rattle with the untamed power. "This is the base of all runes. What is drawn within the center makes up the rune's effect."

I spun my hand as the circle turned clockwise and the decagon counter. Slowly my hand lowered until my fingers were outstretched to the edges of the rune, and overlapping lines merged into the center. Then the symbols began to crawl up my hand and wrist like a snake, settling in a wrapping that took all of it off of the table.

"Once you have chosen your effect and taken control of it, like I have, you simply activate your rune." With that I closed my fist hard, a ball of flame the size of your typical basketball exploding quickly, taking the power of the rune with it. Everyone seemed impressed at the table, except Weiss. "If runes are so good, why are glyphs more widely used?"

"Because runes must be drawn, at least partially. They hold more power than glyphs, but they are slower. It takes years to be able to use them in combat scenarios. It's a trade off, really." I answered her. She seemed satisfied about that, probably only hearing the parts where glyphs were better than runes.

"What about my clones then?" Blake asked me. That I had to think about for a minute. "From what I've seen, you use your clones to take the hit, and then a second later you strike. But if their blade passes through the clone with no resistance, they know it's fake. You need to expand the illusion, make them think you're already dead."

"That's... Dark. But true." She said after a moment of silence. "Okay, what about me?" Yang asked. I was starting to get the very strong feeling that they would all be asking to train with me now. I couldn't waste my time on that. I needed to find the Lock-Box. So thinking quickly about how the byproduct of her semblance was fire, I grabbed a napkin.

"We can see about that once you can light this on fire." I said. Without missing a beat she grabbed at it, her hair already starting to glow a bit. I pulled it back. " _Without_ touching it." I told her, and she stopped, and just stared intently at the napkin in my hand. It lasted about thirty seconds before she gave up. Thirty worthless seconds.

"It's impossible." She said, and I almost laughed. 'You have no idea how to project your aura away from yourself, do you?" She looked at me strangely and I continued to explain. "Your aura resides in your body, but that knowledge is elementary. You must be able to feel it though, brimming just past your skin in the natural shield you create. You've already learned that, you just have to increase your area of influence." I pointed at the heiress.

"Like her, she can summon glyphs a hundred yards from her, and Blake can leave a clone across the room." The two of them respectively nodded as Yang started to understand. "I get it now. Like heatwaves, but aura. Yeah I can do that." She stared intently at the napkin once again, her hand outstretched to meet the distance halfway.

This time I closed my eyes, getting a good look at her aura. I could see her shape, the aura extending from her core to her hand as the concentration increased in that arm. But it went no further. An inch away from her skin seemed to be the barrier. "Do not think as if you are using your aura, think as if you are truly reaching for it." I said.

Her aura wavered for a moment before a phantom limb apparition slowly extended outwards in the shape of an arm. Crude and rudimentary, but on the right tracks. From the flickers in her core aura, I could tell she felt it as well. With eyes closed I watched as her 'hand' slowly moved to grasp the napkin in a phantom grip. I opened my eyes once the aura had reached it.

After ten seconds the napkin began to smoke, and a little after, the barest embers appeared. Then her whole body shivered as the first pieces of flame died and her nose started to bleed slightly. "Oh no, Yang! Are you alright?" Ruby asked, grabbing her dazed sister by the shoulder and shaking slightly. Yang nodded slowly, and spoke even slower.

"Head... Rush..." And then she promptly passed out into her food tray, which was empty. I laughed, getting a dirty look from Weiss and Blake while Ruby picked Yang up by her hair. "What, she's fine. A little aura strain, but nothing serious. Give her five minutes." I told them. Blake sighed and picked up her book again, but watched Yang out of the corner of her eye. Weiss finished eating and took her tray up, and Ruby poked Yang periodically.

 **Sorry about the wait, but I found a way to somewhat cure my writer's block. I'm going to start writing SCP entries about random things, either from my story or any ideas you give me. So start talking about random creatures from games or movies and such, and I'll do my best. They will probably come up next week.**

 **As far as this story goes, I was just putting this out as celebration for finishing finals. The apology giant chapter is still on it's way, probably the next one. Remember to leave a review or PM if you have any comments or ideas, and await the next chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

After Yang had recovered from her little stunt with her aura and stemmed her nosebleed, the four of them decided to drag me to Downtown Vale. Something about decorations and the like. And while I'll admit that they knew how to decorate here, it wasn't anything to go yelling about. Needed more intestines and hearts and less ribbons and lights. I remember this one psycho that made a jack-o-lantern out of a human skull. Real nice.

"The Vytal Festival! Oh this is absolutely wonderful." Weiss said upon seeing said decorations. She had that peppy schoolgirl walk as well, so anyone looking could tell she was happy.

"Wow Weiss, I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much. It's kinda weirding me out." Ruby said, and a slight chuckle from Yang followed. Although she was still fuzzy in the head a bit.

"How can you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament." She continued after that, but I had focused in on the word' tournament. Wasn't there something _very_ important with the Vytal Festival. I started to scan through the memories of souls consumed, searching for information.

Amity Colosseum. The single largest and most advanced structure ever built by the four kingdoms. Used in the Vytal Festival, competing teams from kingdoms fight in front of _thousands_ of _spectators._ That's all I needed. A floating city, above an actual city. I couldn't think of a greater catastrophe, not to mention the fact that it would set back all four kingdoms at once, as well as completely destroy one.

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks." Yang said while Ruby covered her nose and complained about fish. Personally I didn't get it. The smell of decay was great.

"I heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today, and as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom." Weiss said, and you could cut that charade with a knife.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." Smart really. I don't know why you'd hide that. Humans are odd.

"Whoa." Ruby said, interrupting Blake and Weiss' bickering. All of our gazes soon fell on a crime scene across the street. Ruby went to walk over there and we all followed. Two detectives were walking back and forth, taking notes and talking. Ruby walked up to one of them.

"What happened here?" She asked. The man looked up from his notepad. "Robbery. Second Dust Shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." While he walked away, the other one yelled something to him.

"They left all the money again." Ruby seemed interested in this, and so was I. So we listened, noting that they had no idea, that the White Fang were suspected, and that they weren't paid enough. I could see why though. They were pretty useless.

"Hmph, the White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates." Blake scoffed at her. "What's your problem?" Oh yes, I could feel an argument brewing. This could be fun. How I love to see friendships ruined.

"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." Weiss answered. Fair enough from what I knew about Adam Taurus. "The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided faunus." Blake said. No one's misguided. They just have that evil in them. I've seen it, used it. I am that evil.

"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!" Same. "Then they're _very_ misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a dust shop, in the middle of Downtown Vale." Blake answered. True enough.

"Hmm, Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months go. Maybe it was him." Everyone agreed with that, but Weiss decided to put her two cents back in. I love watching arrogance.

"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal." Even Yang looked a bit offended at that one. "That's not necessarily true." She said, and would have continued if not for the police yelling.

"Hey, stop that faunus!". Low and behold, a monkey faunus was sprinting his legs off of a cargo ship, no doubt a stowaway. Although it seemed he didn't care much, because he proceeded to hang upside-down from the nearest pole and began eating a banana. Bad idea though, because a rock almost hit him a second later.

"Hey, get down from there this instant." In answer to the policeman, he gently placed the banana peel on his face before jumping off the pole with a maniacal laugh that I certainly approved of. Then he began running this way. After a moment he was up the docks and on our sidewalk, giving Blake a quick wink as he ran past.

"Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition. And there is goes." Weiss seemed to get her bearings again and shouted. "Quick! We have to observe him." She started running after them and the rest of us followed suit. Unfortunatley after only a few seconds chase, Weiss managed to ever so gracefully shoulder-tackle a pedestrian, looking distraught as the faunus escaped.

"No, he got away." She said, oblivious as to who she ran over. "Uh, Weiss." Yang warned, and she looked down. Staring up at her with an unnatural smile was a ginger-haired girl in a sundress and an odd black and green throat covering. She jumped back in shock as the girl greeted her, still lying on the ground. I could only stare in confusion.

This girl's aura wasn't right. Whatever this _thing_ lying on the ground in front of us was, it wasn't human. At least not completely. Her aura looked restrained and controlled, like a puppet on strings. It moved only because the body moved, not the other way around. And it didn't protect the body either despite clearly being unlocked. It stayed reclusive, serving only to provide the semblance of a soul and person.

"Um, hello." Ruby said. "Are you... ok?" Yang continued. "I'm _wonderful_ , thank you for asking." The thing said as it continued to lie on the ground. We all looked at each other for a second. "Do you... want to get up?" Yang asked her. The 'girl' looked unsure for a moment until she nodded. "Yes."

And then she jumped up in a typical military kick-up. "My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you." She droned out, almost mechanically. All her typical movements were also way to pronounced, giving her an off look.

Ruby started and we all introduced ourselves, except for Yang who asked, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" And she got hit by Blake for that, which made her return to a normal introduction. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She said again. Weiss commented on it and the girl attempted to play it off as normal.

"Well, sorry for running into you." Weiss said, turning around and prompting us to do the same. "Take care friend." Ruby said. It was a figure of speech, but the girl apparently took it literally as a few seconds later she appeared in front of us. "What did you call me?" And proceed to walk too close to Ruby. She attempted to answer, but was flabbergasted as Penny leaned inwards more in interrogation.

"You called me 'friend'. Am I really your friend?" Ruby looked to us and we all made universal 'no' gestures to no avail. "Yeah, sure. Why not." She answered. A beat, and the ginger then laughed. "Sen-sational. We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys." Oh yay, more teenage stupidity combined with an over the top unnatural thing. At this point I was already making a cover up story in case I wanted to nuke downtown to get this over with faster.

"Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby leaned over to Weiss and asked. "No, she seems far more coordinated."

"So, what are you doing in Vale?" Asked Yang. "I'm here to fight in the tournament." She said, shocking us all. Her and Weiss and Blake then debated over her being in the tournament, and the functionality of combat skirts. This all lead up to, with numerous more faunus insults, Blake losing her cool a bit.

"Why do you keep saying that? Stop calling him a rapscallion. Stop calling him a degenerate. He's a person!" She yelled, getting closer and increasing the tension. "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can, or this lamppost as a lamppost?" Weiss answered condescendingly.

"Stop it!" Blake yelled. Weiss just kept talking, to my fortune. "Stop what? He obviously broke the law. Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang." At this point Blake's fists were white-knuckled. "You ignorant little brat!" She yelled, walking away before she lost it completely and decked the heiress.

Aww. That would have been fun.

Then my spirits rose again as Weiss walked after her. "How dare you talk to me that way. I'm your teammate." She said. "You are a judgmental little girl." Blake retorted. "What in the world makes you say that?" This argument continued high into the night by the time we got back to the dorms and after.

* * *

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem." Weiss said, only to anger Blake more. "That _is_ the problem." She said, eyes brimming with anger. I'll admit, I was annoyed at this point as well. Their argument was making me unable to get any decent thinking done, and neither of them had thrown a punch yet!

"You realize you're defending an organization that hates humanity, right? The White Fang are pure evil." Blake shot to a standing position. "There's no such thing as 'pure evil'! Why do you think they hate humanity so much?" She didn't give Weiss a chance to answer.

"It's because of people like Cardin, people like you that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!" Blake said while Ruby and Yang sat back, silently waiting for this to end. Me, I was trying to find a good way to escalate this, and examining who would be easier to push. Bratty heiress, or most likely former White Fang member?

"People like me?" Weiss asked, mocking being offended. "You're discriminatory!" She yelled. "I'm a victim!" The heiress yelled back, fully raising her voice this time. The combination of that outburst and the meaning sent them both silent for a minute, and I felt my chances of watching a good fight diminish.

"You want to know _why_ I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the faunus?" She walked to the window, looking out at the city. "It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember." She continued on.

"And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear, board members executed. An entire train car full of dust, stolen. And every day my father would come home furious, and that made for a _very_ difficult childhood." Ruby took this as an opportunity to try and comfort a team member, but she was mistaken. Weiss threw her hand off her shoulder and the fire came back to her eyes as she went to Blake.

"You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!" She yelled, and I saw something in Blake snap. "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

After that, they both went silent, and Weiss backed up some. Blake looked at us like a cornered animal as Ruby and Yang got to their feet. She backed up. "I-I..." She stopped, glancing at the door before full sprinting at it, putting even her aura into outrunning us. "Blake, wait. Come Back!" Ruby yelled, but it was too late. When you run like that, you don't stop. Not or a while anyway. They knew it as well.

"Maybe, she'll come back later. She just needs to cool off." Yang proposed. Weiss simply huffed before walking into the bathroom, presumably to change into her night clothes. Ruby sighed. "Maybe. We probably shouldn't go after her. Yet." She said to Yang before they both looked at me. "What do you think?"

"I think I'll keep watch on the roof. I don't sleep much anyways." I said, and started walking to the window. "Alright. Call down if you notice anything." I nodded as I climbed out the window and dug my fingers into the brick once more. I'd done this enough already that I was starting to wear handholds into the side.

From up there I closed my eyes again and looked for her aura, that black purple that was so close to my own power in color. She had already made it to Beacon's hunter statue. That was surprising, but not as surprising as the fact that she stopped, and was talking to someone.

The monkey faunus. I'd have to keep tabs on where this was going.

 **2 Days Later**

The weekend had come and went, along with Monday classes. Afterwards Ruby convinced me, and more impressively Weiss to go and look for her. "She's been gone all weekend." Ruby said in a pouting voice.

"Blake's a big girl, I'm sure she can handle herself." Weiss said in her still condescending tone that hadn't changed. She only spoke of Blake in that voice." Yang gave her another look. "Weiss, come on. She's one of our teammates."

"Is she? We all heard what she said." Ruby looked back at her. "Weiss." She said, the small edge to her voice a warning, one she didn't take.

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she's missing and we need to find her." Yang said. Weiss ignored her. "A member of the White Fang. Right underneath our noses!" She said. Ruby just mumbled to herself. "I just hope she's okay."

I knew she was fine. I'd been keeping tabs on her aura this entire time. Currently she was sitting in a coffee shop in Vale. In front of her was the same monkey faunus as before.

A few hours later into our walk, Ruby and Yang were screaming their heads off trying to get Blake's attention from wherever she was at. We attracted more than a few looks on the street. "Weiss, you're not helping." She said, panting.

"Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police!" She said, arrogantly as ever. Even Ruby was getting pissed at this point, and you could see it, and Weiss could tell. She tried to defend herself. "It was just an idea!"

"Yeah, a bad one." Ruby said, walking down the street further. "Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Yang said. "I think when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right." Weiss argued, and then a voice with a grass green aura spoke up. The same aura.

"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" Oh great, the abomination was back. She apparently scared the hell outta the other three because they almost jumped into combat stance, and Ruby screamed. "Agh! Penny, where did you come from!"

"Hey guys. What are you up to?" She said, ignoring the question entirely. "We're looking for our friend Blake." Yang answered. "Oooh, you mean the faunus girl." The three of them went silent for a second.

"Wait. How did you know that?" Ruby asked, flabbergasted. "Uh, the cat ears." She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What cat ears? She wears a... bow." She said. A tumbleweed passed us by, and honestly, to date, I have no fucking idea where it came from. THEY DON"T EVEN GROWN ON THIS SIDE OF THE PLANET!

"She does like tuna alot." Ruby whispered to Yang. "So, where is she?" Penny asked. "We don't know. She's been missing since Friday." Apparently that touched a never on the abomination, because she grasped Ruby by the shoulders in reassurance. That's terrible! Well don't you worry Ruby, my friend. I won't rest until we find your teammate."

"Uh, that's really nice of you Penny, but we're-we're okay. Really, right guys. The three of use had moved away from the scene, not wishing to promote the same treatment from Penny. Although from the distance, I saw another FUCKING TUMBLEWEED pass by them. "It sure is windy today." Penny said.

Weiss, Yang, and I completely ditched Ruby, and Yang had no regrets. We started asking around in stores and other places to see if they had seen her. We had just walked out of one when Yang finally accused Weiss. "You don't really care if we find her, do you?" She asked. Weiss looked back.

"Don't be silly. Of course I hope we find her. I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we do. The innocent never run, Yang." She said to Yang. It raised a good point

* * *

 **That Night**

By now she search had taken us deep into the night, and I was quite tired of it. So, looking for Blake's aura, I began to silently steer the group of us in the direction of the Shipping Docks. Shipping Docks? Why was she there with the monkey faunus?

By the tensions mounting in her aura, and those at the docks, I could feel a fight brewing, that and the airship above it was something to go by. I sped walked forwards in front of Weiss and Yang without reason, trying to get them to follow me. Fortunately I didn't have to do it for long. As Blake's aura attacked another, there was a sharp whistle and a large explosion at the docks, and I was certain that Ruby and Penny saw it as well.

Many more came shortly after. "Come on!" I yelled, upping my pace until Yang and Weiss could barely keep up. Barely. I didn't bother listening to their complaints to slow down. I watched as more enemies joined the fray as well as the monkey faunus. All too soon I could tell that the docks were turning into a war zone.

Ruby and the abomination beat us there first, and her aura took a hit as another joined the explosion. Then after a few seconds, Penny's aura changed. Ten blades being controlled by strands or aura extended from her, although it wasn't just aura. It was a from of synthetic aura projection, stronger than any I'd seen, and more versatile than perhaps even mine without copying the ability.

She fought with deadly accuracy from what I could tell, though we were still halfway across Downtown Vale. But in the presence of three more airships, she retreated and gathered her aura. Seconds later, a beam of pure power and aura rivaling my own at around 25% burst forth, shearing the three ships in half. From the tingle in my spine, she just ruthlessly murdered most if not all of the passengers.

Then the strands latched onto another ship, and with a few seconds of effort, ripped it out of the sky. More deaths. Everything got real quite after that, and I could see an aura escape the scene. Orange and having douche-bag written all over it.

We got there about twenty minutes later, and Ruby was there to greet us. Behind her I could see Blake and the monkey faunus. "Look Weiss it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. You see she doesn't actually wear a bow she has kitty ears and they're actually kinda cute." Her explanation fell on deaf ears as Weiss walked straight up to Blake, who then stood and faced her.

Blake spoke first. "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with-" She was cut off. "Stop. Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" She asked, but Blake decided to remain silent.

"Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided... I don't care!" Blake looked taken aback. "You don't care?" She asked.

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Blake tried to answer. "No I haven't been since I was younger but-" Again she was cut off.

"I don't wanna hear it. All I want to know is if the next time something this big comes up, you'll come to you're teammates. And not some... Someone else." Blake was obviously stunned by the heartfelt words and wiped a tear away. I tried my best to mimic the faces Ruby and Yang were making.

"Oh course." She said. And then Ruby cheered. They all huddled together and I followed, though a bit more distant. "I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you." Weiss said, her finger in the monkey, faunus' face. He laughed nervously.

"Hey wait a minute. Where's Penny?" The abomination? I scanned the area, looking through buildings for her constrained aura. I saw it, halfway across town and in a car with someone else. I decided to keep this to myself, but kept a mental bridge to her aura. Then I looked back to the group. "It's late. If we want to catch classes tomorrow then we better get back. Let's finish the semester strong." I told them, and there was a general agreement.

We walked back to Beacon together while I took periodic peeks at the other girl's aura through buildings. Through buildings...

Well now. Tommorow was about to be interesting...

 **Sorry about the delay again. It took me some time to figure out just where I wanted to anchor the timeline. Now that we have it, you've got yourself a countdown to doomsday. See you all in the next chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

I did it. I FOUND IT!

After months of searching and thinking and methods, I finally found it. The Lock-Box And I have the abomination and her aura to thank. Because I could see her aura through the buildings and even ground, the thought occurred to me, why not _move_ through it.

So that night, after we reconciled with Blake, I snuck to the top of the roof once more, and returned to my pure form. Although, it was a much weaker and less potent form. My being left my body once more, and I dove downwards.

Searching through the ground was not easy to do, as I could see almost nothing and there were minimal aura markers aside from a mass hunter grave under the building. In there thousands of hunters were sealed away with their weapons and an inscription on them. Although something perturbed me. All of the graves had different auras surrounding them, except for one

There was an empty grave with the name 'Valus Marks', and the light touch aura matched Ozpin's. It was empty though, And it gave me one idea. If Ozpin had been reincarnated and lived as long as he had, were these his bodies? Was Valus the body he was in? The thought intrigued me, and I would soon have to pay him another visit soon.

But onto greater matters. The Lock-Box. While there was no aura marks to speak of, there was a certain light protruding from a section deep under Beacon's hunter statue. And as I moved myself closer, I began to see what the light was. It was a door. A glowing, massive door.

When I got close to it, I found myself falling at first, having entered a void space, or room as the locals call it. Quickly I caught myself and landed on solid ground. The door stood in front of me, but despite my efforts, I could not see through it.

Only one thing to do, go through it. So I boldly walked up to it, and fully expected to walk through it. Instead, I ran into the wall as if it was the most solid object in the world. Placing my hand on it, I found it wouldn't budge. The glowing didn't even react to my touch other than giving me a sense of rejection.

Fine then. I hadn't met a door that could hold me yet. So I pushed some of my power into my arm, about 5%, and swung. Enough to take down a strong door, but nothing to this. Again I pushed my power, packing 25% of my effort, and punched again. Other than a dull thud, the door didn't even flex.

Just what was this, I wondered. So I pushed an even larger amount into my hand, probably too much, and swung a final time. With force enough to bring down this cavern, I impacted the door. A dull thud, a few sparks, nothing. How?

"Show me what you are." I demanded, letting my mind seep inwards and find out the purpose behind this obvious magic. What I saw troubled me. This door entered into a space that didn't truly exist behind this door. And it could only be opened by a certain power. Another thing became clear to me. Whatever was behind this door, was not what I was looking for.

Something told me it was important though, so I set that in the back of my mind, bookmarking the power it would react to, and stepped away. This cavern was not what I wanted.

For the rest of the night, I swam deeper and deeper into the ground, covering larger and larger circles of area in greater speeds in order to find what I was looking for. The Lock-Box had to be here. And when I felt the sun beginning to rise, I found it.

A steel box of amazing size and thickness surprised me. But it was there. Below me were assortments of weapons and labels detailing what they were. And while I wanted to start playing with them now, I had no time left. So I shot upwards, through the ceiling and ground for two minutes before I surfaced. Beacon was on the horizon from where I was at.

Where I was exactly, was hard to tell. The most information I had was smack in the middle of the Emerald Forest, but here the trees were thicker. I could sense the presence of stronger Grimm here. Goliaths and Ursai Majors. It has been a long time since I had seen Grimm herding done. Just what kind of blood was spilled here that these beasts still frequented it so much?

For another time I suppose. I planted a small sigil marker so that I could find this spot again when I had time to properly examine them. It may have been the end of the semester and in the middle of our one week break, but Ruby wanted to use all of this time to the fullest, up at sunrise and asleep past sundown. Dragging me to many different annoying places and events.

The only entertaining part of this week was the Team Dinner Yang brought us all to. I had her drink some Good Ol' Sailor Vodka, and her reaction was priceless. After boldly taking the shot and downing it, she coughed and hacked up a storm for about a minute before she looked up at me and gave a weak thumbs-up and crooked smile before coughing some more. Five minutes later she quoted 'That'll put hair on a 9 year old girl's chest.', all while wheezing out words.

I chuckled a bit at the memory as I sailed to Beacon, thinking of alibis to keep this day to myself. I knew they were expecting me to train them at least once this week, and while that was fun enough, the Lock-Box was more important. Perhaps I could appeal to their sense of family?

All my family was at the Ice Fangs, thanks me... Maybe I had some sort of distant uncle who was a nomad. He was just visiting here for some reason. but they'd have questions, maybe even want to come. I'll say he's paranoid, a bit off in the head. That'll work. Yeah, crazy Uncle Dave. Why not.

With the thoughts in my head, I slammed back in my own body and dissipated the Sigil once again and prepared to step down. "Oh, hey there Darren. I was just coming up to get you. Ruby wanted to get some more training in today, and I was hoping you could teach me a new trick. Even Weiss is interested now."Yang jumped from the ledge she was on and up to me. She smiled so imploringly, and if I was human, it might have swayed me.

"You light the paper yet?" I asked, and her smile dropped. "A-Almost! Still get those damn nosebleeds..." She trailed of. "Then no-can-do. Besides, I've got some family traveling in and wanted to catch up with them." She tilted her head. "Isn't your family across the world?" I nodded. "Most of them. I've got this odd uncle though. He's a traveler, never stays in one spot more than a week."

"Well can we meet him?" She asked, but I was prepared. Verbal checkmate! "He's... Just a bit off in the head. Doesn't really trust anyone but family, and even that's strained." I told her, and she seemed to understand. "Yeah, we've got an uncle a little bit like that, but he's fun. Go meet up with your uncle and I'll tell the rest of them down there." I made a hat-tip gesture before jumping off the building and on to lower rooftops. She yelled at me from behind. "Hey! Try to get back before nightfall!"

"No promises!" I yelled back, jumping to a lower roof and waiting until she got inside before hopping over the cliff edge and opening my jacket into wings. That went much smoother than I expected. Maybe after all this time, I'm finally predicting their personalities. Good thing to, because that has been a pain since day one. At least now I have their trust. But was it trust enough to set off a few grenades in the hallway and have them not suspect me? Maybe just one. Maybe.

Probably.

Ah, property damage. I'll wait.

So I continued to glide down the cliffs and towards my Sigil about two miles away. An annoying trek to have to make in my meat suit, but the wind was nice. You just couldn't get that when Astral Projecting. The meat suit has benefits, alright. Not as many as being a god, but still. I'll keep it around. Hang it on my metaphorical wall.

Hmm, the treetops were getting a bit close, so I'd have to run soon. I was only about halfway there, disappointingly. Though I was looking forward to fighting the herded Grimm in the area. Been a while since I fought a Goliath.

I impacted the ground and broke into a run immediately, pushing some strength into my run and hitting a solid thirty-mph. The wind was still there at that speed, and I was having a good time, but at the same time impatient. There was experimental weaponry to test after all. Hopefully there was a target range.

I began to slow my pace and weave more as the trees thickened and I neared my mark on the ground, Unsurprisingly, I could sense a few larger Grimm puttering around it, but they felt off somehow. More colorful than your average Grimm, soulfully speaking. They had specks in their masses of void that existed in place of their soul. This I had to inspect.

I slowed to a normal jog and drew my humongous blade and readied myself, though I didn't really need to. Pushing through the thick brambles of trees, I spotted with my normal vision the pieces of white and black that signified Grimm, along with what looked to be flashes of dust. Through the brambles, now I could see what I was dealing with.

Dust Grimm... These Beowolves and Ursai had spines of dust where their normal spikes would have protruded, and speckles of the specified elements fluttered around their bodies in the typical miasma of Grimm essence. Their eyes and markings were also colored accordingly. How they were created I had no idea. There were only old tomes describing the practice of integrating dust into the human body, and that only succeeded because of the soul, and how dust reacts to it.

Did these Grimm posses a soul? No. A single glance into them disregarded that theory. They were as dark and empty as they used to be, save for the streaks of dust flowing through them. Could it be that the dust was bonding to itself inside the Grimm's bodies, like a conductor of sorts. It was plausible, and dangerous. Supplementing greater Grimm knowledge and learning, it might give them rudimentary control over their element.

A hunter's nightmare. The one advantage we had over Grimm, taken to level the playing field. While the idea fancied me, I knew I couldn't leave these things to wander around my body while my essence explored the Lock-Box. So I flicked my blade to the side, shearing a few grass blades. Then I lifted my hand to my lips and called out a shrill taxi-whistle to get their attention.

It worked.

It seems the dust integration had made them significantly more aggressive. They didn't even take the time to acknowledge me before the nearest Beowolf, a yellow one, lashed out with his arm at me and an arc of electricity impacted where I was standing just milliseconds ago. I don't care who you are, lightning is fast. My jump carried me to a tree trunk which I bounded off of to return the attack.

The creature was faster than I anticipated, its movements encased in arcs of lightning that jumped at anything near them, especially my sword. The beast's movement carried its claws to my chest, and due to the velocity of the movement, i felt them pierce my poorly readied body shield and leave four pinprick cuts across my sternum and sent my sailing a few fee back.

Before I even had the chance to ready and redouble my shielding, it was on my again, tailed by another of fire, the red eyes glowing just a shade brighter and embers sprouting from its form. I kicked and jumped back, dancing around the trees, actually on the retreat. This thought surprised me, and I loved the thrill of it. I decided to keep my power at this level, and rely on skill.

Smiling, I turned my backwards jump into a surprising forwards launch with my sword outstretched and aiming for the lightning beast's neck. It was still fast, pulling up its claws in a strike and forcing my to repel it, before launching once again. With its arms swung open by my parry, it was exposed. I swung upwards in a slicing arc, but it jumped backwards, only receiving an inch-deep cut that oozed sparking ichor.

A sudden warmth in my back quickly increased as the fire Beowolf raked its claws across my back, sending my forwards and into a similar attack from the lightning that pummeled my rag-dolling body into the dirt. While the attacks failed to pierce my power, the jarring impacts shook me some, and I almost lost my weapon.

Gripping the hilt tighter, I kicked my legs and one arm to the sides, flinging upwards and in a horizontal arc to give myself space, and landing heavily on my feet. They were unhindered by my show and converged onto me. I jumped, letting them collide under me before issuing out a heavy slice that chipped away at their surprisingly tough skulls, and left more shimmering blood on the ground.

I landed on the flame wolf's gnashing mouth, my feet propping the jaw open while I fended off the other with my sword. This didn't last long because the one I was standing on seemed to hate me, and began clawing at my ankles, pushing me off balance, but not before I kicked out a few of it's teeth and sliced through one of its cheeks. As I landed, it snorted and some fire sparked out.

It charged me and I slid under it, delivering a heavy punch to it's ribs and forcing it over me. It landed sideways into a tree roughly, shaking itself off. I rose from my slide and to my feet, meet the lightning elemental wolf. My sword raised, I summoned a dagger in my other. We met in a clash of sparks as I hammered downwards in an arc with my dagger and it locked my weapon with its claws.

I broke the lock with a heavy upwards slash, my blade coming to a stop before I reversed the motion, preforming a double spin on my feet. Two deep chest wounds appeared and bled heavily. The beast snarled at me, and I felt the heat rise to my back once more.

Back-flipping over the intended danger, the two clashed once more as I landed behind them, though this time I didn't charge. instead I jumped once more over them, gripping my sword and plunging it through the back of the fire clad beast. That wasn't it though, as its hate for me knew now bounds. I saw it turn against my blade as its dust crystals and eyes began to glow brighter.

Sensing the impending explosion, I removed my sword and back-stepped several yards, hoping that the blast took out the lightning wolf as well. It growled as I saw flames burst out of its chest before black hell-fire consumed it in a large ball of heat and death ten-feet wide. The resulting shock-wave pushed me back some, leaving trenches in the ground.

I however was not given a moment's respite, raising my sword just in time as a singed lightning Beowolf charged me, maw dripping with blood from its broken teeth. it snarled and snapped at me and I side-stepped away from it as we began a circle. Eyeing one another wearily, I waited for the creature's aggression to force it to make the first move.

I didn't have to wait long, and it barreled for me. In my left hand I summoned a rock gauntlet and swung downwards onto its head. Using the force from my blow I propelled upwards, twirling my blade over my side into a deadly cleaving motion that finally split the beast's head in two. Unlike its counterpart however, the sparks intensified for a moment before dying out and letting the body fall to the floor.

I sighed and removed my blade, flicking it to rid it of the Grimm's ichor. "Some odd creatures you two were. At least now I can-" My outer monologue was cut off as a deep roar moved through the forest along with several trees snapping and falling. I readied my blade an unconsciously boosted my power limit slightly. It may have seemed too much, but I could feel the ground shaking from here.

Whatever it was was strong, that much was clear.

My eyes didn't have time to scan the trees for impending Grimm as my target crashed through the treeline. From what I could gather before I had to avoid its crushing fist, the Grimm was a Beringel, or GoreApe as it is better known. It also large glowing eyes, swimming with purple and brown as seen on its arms. The forearms themselves along with the biceps where much large that normal, with not just shards, but entire plates of Gravity and Earth dust. Its bone plates also covered more of the thing's body than normal, making it older.

As I avoided said crushing fist, I could feel the impact reverberate through the trees as a small shock-wave of purple radiated from the blow. Its eyes followed me to the tree I landed on, and it charged again. I knew I wasn't safe on the tree, and jumped as the Beringel swatted it away like a simple stick, its velocity taking out two others before stopping.

My jump carried me over the Grimm's back and I took two experimental slices into its back and between the bone plates. Aside from a grunt of frustration, I don't think it even felt that, despite the size of my blade.

Deeper cuts then.

It turned around and I ducked under one fist, using my sword to slice at the fingers of the next. It recoiled for just a moment, and I stabbed inwards, between the ab plates. Without reaction I was grasped in one fist, feeling the weight of gravity and earth over me. With a roar it slammed me into the ground flat-palmed. And if I hadn't realized how bad of a situation this was and boosted my shielding, my body would probably have a few broken bones. As it was I could see my power flicker around me as the Ape's hand lifted off my chest and beat on its own.

I was on my feet soon after, and summoned two large sledge hammers while lowering my power output of speed and increasing strength. Two could play at this game. With a roar of my own I charged the GoreApe, impacting its sternum with a heavy scissor slice of crushing might. It grunted as It was pushed back an inch. Then it raised its arms and the pebbles around us began to float. I saw the Gravity Dust plated begin to glow brighter before the arms were brought down on me. Even with increased durability and strength, I knew not to take that blow head on unless I was fighting at half or more.

As it was, being grazed by the attack was enough to turn a man into a fine paste, and it sent me reeling and groaning, the first time feeling pain in some time. And I felt it a little too much. "Now you've pissed me off." I snarled, a little of my true voice bleeding in. If the creature understood the danger it was in, it didn't let on.

I evolved my twin hammers, adding spikes to either end and increasing the head size slightly, and packing small pockets of energy in the backs. "Round two." I spoke, and charged with both hammers overhead. The Grimm in front of me bared its own hands in challenge, and I activated the hammers.

The pockets of energy exploded in a velocity fueled swing that impaled deeply through the skin of the Beringel's hands, and it bled a roar of pain into the air as I retracted my hammers and refilled the energy. With hate in its eyes, the creature picked up handfuls of dirt, the dust's power turning them into solid balls of rock the size of beach-balls.

The Ape launched them at me with ferocity, one after the other. I was forced onto the offensive for a short moment, having to swat the chunks of newly-made stone out of the air with my hammers. Unsatisfied with the effect of its attacks, the Beringel charged its earth and gravity dust again, surprising me that they were not being depleted by the constant use.

Two massive fists smashed the ground, sending out a wave of influence over the soil. Multiple large rocks of soil lifted themselves from the ground and into the air. It seemed that my estimate of rudimentary control had been grossly underestimated. This kind of ability took mastery over dust. I didn't have much time to ponder this, as the first of the dozens of rocks began to move towards me.

Once more I was forced onto the offensive, weaving in between and smashing boulders out of the air as I attempted to formulate a plan that didn't involve charging my power higher. This was one of the best fights I had had in a long time, but it could soon turn dangerous if I stayed at my current level.

So I focused on the pattern of the rocks, taking more than a few impacts in the process as I shifted my concentration to looking for an opening. Shoulder, leg, head, right side, there!

Smashing the final rock of this set, I launched my legs into movement, kicking up the dirt behind me. Duck right, keep moving. The ground between me and the beast had become little more than an oddly shaped crater. Juke left. Jump, roll. Closer.

The beast could see what I was doing through its natural blind rage, and halted its assault in order to charge me directly. As the GoreApe's hands were brought down on my form, I slide around, anchoring my hammer like a bootleg turn. Then I allowed the rest of my body to swing around and upwards, ending with impaling my right hammer just above the Grimm's shoulder blade. This was soon followed by my left, and I activated the stored energy once more.

The hammers drove in to the opposite face, severing many muscles that were necessary for major arm control. It howled in agony and extreme anger, attempting to throw me off, but I remained anchored by my hammers, filling the energy pockets once again. As I finished, I felt the beast's movement shift backwards as my body crashed through several trees.

Barely able to keep my bodily shields up, I leaped from my position on the Beringel's back before bringing both my hammers down onto the back of its skull with an almighty crack. A deep squelching sounded as I ripped my hammers from through the sides of the head and let the body fall to the ground. The dust on its arms lost their glint and faded. The brown returning to soil and the gravity simply dispersing.

I heaved for breath as I stood there, my clothes wet with black ichor that was slowly dissolving away. My hammers fell from my hands and I let them disappear. For the first time since I created this body, I was racked with pain, but the smile on my face was apparent. If Beacon's best were able to put up anywhere near as much of a fight, I would be happy.

I said an old respect to a very worthy opponent, silently wishing there was a soul for me to reap, and that its essence wouldn't just return as another Grimm. Food for thought, but I had more important things to think about.

My battle with the three creatures had taken me a good distance from my sigil. The walk over was filled with me constantly scanning the area for more dust-infused Grimm, but sadly there were none left. Perhaps I could figure out how to create one, just for kicks. There were greater Grimm to infuse than just a Beringel. The possibilities were endless.

If they were here, herded in by spilled blood, then that means someone created them. The knowledge would be a forbidden practice for sure, and most definitely would count as weaponry. If I was lucky, then the knowledge of how to do this would be in the Lock-Box.

With that on my mind, I sat down in the center of my sigil, and returned to meditation.

 **Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. This was one of my favorite fight scenes to write, but the best are yet to come. Stay tuned for more. Make sure to leave a review or PM if you have anything to say or any ideas.**


	11. Chapter 11

The Lock-Box was just as large as I remembered it in my brief look into it. Ten stories tall and a football-field wide, and many more long. Where I landed was somewhere towards the beginning of the long corridor that made up this hidden room. I had a great view of experimental weapons, items, and artifacts ahead of me in a hallway so long I could see the imperfections of curving steel.

Looking for a door so that I may be able to get my meat-suit down here at some point, I did a 360 scan, stopping behind me at the wall. Up a large black iron staircase and lined with multiple lanterns, there was a small door with a single button next to it. Experimentally I walked up the staircase, observing the odd purple light coming from the lanterns.

When I arrived at the top of the staircase I stared at the button, large and green with the black insignia of interlocking gears, with the center gear being a clock. I pushed it, hearing a click and small beep before a voice spoke to me. "Voice confirmation of exit, please." It said to me, and I focused on what I had heard from Ozpin's voice, mimicking it.

"Headmaster Ozpin." An alarming beep before the door shoved outwards and opened. "I hope you've enjoyed your stay, Headmaster Ozpin. Have a nice day." Behind the heavy metal door was another long and dark hallway, sparsely lit with regular lights. An exploration for another time. For now though, the door was open, and that meant that there was a way in, somewhere. I could still sense no aura marks within this place or its hallway.

Turning away from the door I waltzed down the stairs, taking in the many metal weapons before me. Each of them were secured to the floor or in glass cases that were no doubt built to withstand a missile. Below or above each of them was a label of their name, and a button with different insignia, this time those of the different kingdoms. Places of origin I assumed.

Tentatively I walked towards the nearest weapon, a small dagger set with a red gemstone in the hilt and smaller specks of the same materials along it. I pushed the button.

 **" _Topaz Dagger. Place of origin - Vacuo. This weapon is inlaid with enchanted topaz gemstones that when activated with aura, effectively triple the length of the blade and raise its temperature to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit."_**

Well then. I suppose that was how it worked. With just the push of a button I could reveal a summary of whatever object or weapon in here. That made my job easier. So, like a child in a candy store, I strolled over to a large metal rail-gun with the Atlas insignia. On its barrel were alternating yellow, red, and purple dust crystals. I pushed the button.

 _ **"Atlesian Railgun. This weapon, powered by electric, fire, and gravity dust, simulates the impact of a small meteor with the approximate mass of a small transport truck. The effective range of this gun is ten miles with proper calculations. Useful for five shots with a single charge."**_

I liked the sound of that, though transportation of this would be very difficult. I wasn't entirely sure how they got it through the door. They very well could have built it here. I needed something a little more compact. I decided to look into the glass cases more than the stand-alone weapons. The next case was longer, but for good reason. There were three belts of grenades, each highlighted by purple, red, and brown. Under them were the buttons of different kingdoms. I pushed the first, red, made by Vale.

 ** _"Elemental Grenade, Blaze. These grenades follow signature pineapple grenade design, but with many of the shrapnel shards being replaced by hand-crafted dust plates. These plates will explode into small burst of fire themselves. Used for clearing rooms."_**

I pushed the brown one, Vacuo.

 _ **"In the earthy terrain in of Vacuo, this grenade holds a charge of un-stabilized earth dust. Weaponized on impact, the use was to incapacitate large machines with spires of stone."**_

These were starting to sound better and better. I pushed the final button, Atlas.

 _ **"Atlesian Gravity Bombs, small scale. A small scale version of Atlas' Inertia Bombs, these explode first and then implode with surprising force, colliding soldiers and weapons alike with bone-snapping force."**_

Leave it to Atlas to develop the best weaponry. Although the other two seemed a bit more rugged and creative. I bookmarked these in my mind before moving onto the next case, this one containing a small white rock. There was no insignia when I pushed the button.

 _ **"Moonstone. A shard of the moon fallen to earth. Recovered by all of the Kingdoms' efforts. Has the property to bring back the dead, but only part of their soul. Due to the adverse affects, the kingdoms agreed to never use the stone."**_

That was basically useless to me. While an interesting artifact, I was looking for weapons. Where could I find another little jackpot like those grenades, I wondered. Walking around and inspecting these weapons alone was going to take me some time. Fortunately, I had a lot of it. So I walked to another case, this one containing a metal body with no features, donned with a gleaming set of white armor with gold inlays and blue highlights on the inside. The set included a chest-plate, arm and leg set, and heavy boots. Inside of these to tie everything together was a mix of heavy black leather and chain-mail. The insignia showed Vale.

 ** _"Crocea Armis. Matching to the sword and shield known as Crocea Mors. These pieces together complete the original, impervious set owned by the King of Vale."_**

A bit of history to me. I knew that currently the Arc family held the sword and shield, and Jaune had obviously taken it with him to become a huntsman. If I really wanted a challenge, giving him this armor might make him formidable. Even more food for thought.

More walking and looking to do. I found melee weapons, experimental guns, unstable ammo, tainted dusts. What was in this vault truthfully impressed me, and I found a great many things that would make some fireworks. My favorite was the Atlesian Reactionary Bomb, exploding in a way that set a near unlimited chain reaction of molecules to release their energy. A test in the deserts of Vacuo showed that a Ten Square-Mile circle of nothing but sand released energy enough to turn that area into the now famous Glass Storm Region.

The only problem was that the warhead itself was very large, and that it was disarmed. I was almost certain that if needed, I could detonate it by force of my own starting explosion. It would make some very nice fireworks, but I would have to be outside of the blast radius. My meat suit was, after all, made of matter.

After many more minutes of walking, I came across a broad blue line with words scrawled into it on the floor. **"Artifacts Ahead** ** _"._** I know I had encountered a few artifacts back behind me, but those might have just been artifacts classified as weapons. If that was true, I probably had no reason to look through these and just pass by them, but I looked for curiosity's sake.

The first one was in a glass case and sitting on a metal mount, was a large white tooth with a calcified yellow venom on the tip. I pushed the Vacuo button. **_"Lurker tooth, recovered from an Alpha Lurker. The venom in this tooth attacks the aura directly, forcing the semblance to activate until the aura is burned down, and beyond that into the soul. If one had not had their aura unlocked, this process happens even faster. Death occurs in one hour unless the victim is killed beforehand. No known cure."_**

Grim, I liked it. Unfortunately the venom was calcified and unusable. A pity. I did question how the tooth hadn't dissolved like most Grimm yet, but it didn't matter. My legs carried me to another case containing a jar of a thick black substance. Vale. _**"Grimm Blood, synthesized through abstract means dealing with human blood."**_

What were 'abstract means'? Did they mix human blood with it in order to give the darkness something to bond to? Bah. I looked to another case, this time containing a simple saw-blade shaped pendant hanging by a strip of leather. The button was blank this time. **_"A badge given to the first hunters to use dust. Holds no meaning anymore."_**

That made sense. I did vaguely remember pulling one of these off a dead hunter when I was still a powerful mortal, and not a god. More history. More facts, nothing interesting. This was similar through most of the rest of the cases that I wandered through. I was beginning to think that I would find nothing else interesting in this Lock-Box and was preparing to double back through the large weapons when I caught sight of a door.

 **Dark Archives**

That peaked my interest slightly. What knowledge was so forbidden that it was to be contained in a place like this. A new spring in my step, I strolled up to the door and opened it. Inside was a simple, old wooden bookshelf with five books on it, covered in dust. To the left of that was a writing desk and chair with many crumpled pages on it, and signs of age much longer than it should have survived.

 **The Study of All Things Grimm - Darhk**

 **The Study of All Things Godly - By. Willem**

 **The Study of All Things Mystical - Lady Maria**

 **The True History - By. Ozpin**

These names were obviously important, and the three I didn't know must have had their first names lost to time. The last was obviously Ozpin, and I had spoken to him already. In his history, there were probably things that he didn't want hidden. The origins of the Grimm, Salem, himself. Just how real I was in the beginning.

The books themselves ranged in size from History being the largest, followed by Grimm, Mystical, and Godly. While the aspect of history bored me, and I was already tapped into the Mystical powers, What hidden secrets of Grimm interested me. I knew some about the Gods, but who and what they were still confounded me. Maybe they had some interesting insights in that small book.

Boldly I stepped forwards and grasped The Study of All Things Godly, and sat at the writing desk. The chair was comfortable, and it was silent under the weight of my astral body. The book opened under my fingers, and I began reading.

Now, there is no good way to explain what I read in these books without quoting the text almost entirely. So that is what I will do. There was a message on the first page.

 **"To those who dare read this forbidden and ancient text, I leave my knowledge that me and all my disciples have gained over our years. As you read further into this book, you will encounter answers and questions, as well as things you won't believe exist. Some of these things will put pieces into the puzzle of your life, and others may tear it apart with the fact of their existence."**

Ooh, ominous. With a small grin on my face, I turned the page.

 **Chapter 1 - Forces**

 **Forces are constants in our lives. Something that no man, woman, or thing can defy. The most notable constants are Time, and Death, and these work hand in hand. Time is a constant, passing always and lightly perceived by our lesser senses. A sixth sense, if you will, is the ability to observe time passing, and count it. Anyone can do this, but it changes.**

 **Time is odd in the fact that while we count it in units, these units can become longer or shorter, unbeknownst to us until we realize where we have moved in the spectrum. I like to call this 'Chronal Shifting". Chronal Shifting occurs when one either consciously focuses on time, or ceases to do so. You see, we are constantly in a state of Chronal Shift, but we are in different states than others.**

 **An example of this would be waiting. When waiting, you count the seconds, and the passage of time seems to become slower. You may think and feel as if your moment in time stretches for minutes, even hours, and yet another can perceive it as less. Say perhaps, you are doing something you enjoy, of something that requires all of your focus. The hours begin to tick by, while for others it is slow.**

 **It is in this that I have decided Time is relevant to us all, and we all have some control over it, more than others. Physical and fixed items have no control over this, as they have no sense. They simply become useless attempts to measure Time. I have found that there is no God that controls Time, but rather we are that God.**

 **The second Constant I will talk about in this chapter, is Death. Death is a force, but is much more concrete than Time ever will be. Death is a moment, an act; it is irreversible. When someone dies, you must accept this as fact and move on, saying goodbye to anything they have and would have done.**

 **In many small cultures and churches, Death has often had a form, the 'Angel', of Death. The omen of the end. Darkness. The Reaper. These are both correct and mistaken. Death I have found, is what one would call a true God. Conscious and almost certianly malevolent.**

 **Death has the power to be an un-moving constant, undeniable by any means, and so it must have the power to remain in any form it should wish, be that force, astral, or physical. Some such as Maria would argue though that Astral is a form of physical, but no matter.**

 **Death, and by comparison, Life, are your greatest Gods. Life is similar to Death like Night is to Day. Both will happen, and this is undeniable. The only difference, is that Life is temporary, and Death is final.**

I had to admit, this man 'Willem' was much more inclined and in tune to the world than most would ever be. His theories, though treated like fact, were very accurate. Me and Life were near equals, though Life had chosen not to take a physical or astral form in centuries. As far as I was concerned, his theories on Time were very interesting. I continued reading.

 **Chapter 2 - Gods of Remnant**

 **Gods are not always a force, I have learned. And through many studies and experiences, I have found there to be a great many Gods. Greater and Lesser. The most notable and greatest of these would be your four elements. Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Though the greatest of their kind, they are incomparably weaker when compared to the influence of Life and Death.**

 **Air. Scientists can call this the aspect of weather, or simple particles and gasses moving. In this aspect, they are correct. But what makes them move, and creates the weather, they are wrong. There is no reason for currents of air to twist as violently as they would in a Tornado, or grow as large and thick as such present in Typhoons. A consciousness, however scattered, is present. If one could know how to listen, they would begin to hear words upon the wind. This is the voice of Air.**

 **Earth. Once again, scientists think this is a simple collection of matter. But what makes the ground quake and rocks in the desert move without human interaction? What made the mountains rise and the caves open? No act, human or otherwise, could create something of such magnitude. Earth has no discernible consciousness, for it seems asleep in all aspects. It is a force, and at the same time, irrefutably physical.**

 **Water. We know the moon makes the water rise and fall in the tides. But the moon cannot make the water wave and lap at the shores. It cannot make simple rivers carve canyons into the ground. It cannot make this one element become lifeblood, and a need for existence. Once more, water has no consciousness or personality.**

 **Finally, we have fire. Even scientists are baffled by what makes fire, claiming 'heat', is behind it all. But what of fire creating its own heat? Fire is malevolent, and infinite. It spreads if not controlled, and hisses and coughs poison smoke as it dies. Fire is a force, an entity, and a power to harness. I myself have spoken with fire, and known its name. Through the cracks in bones and patterns in ashes, I have found a language.**

 **Repeating phrases, 'Burn, die, blaze, spread, incinerate.' are only some of them. Rarely are they coherent, but their meaning is understood.**

There were more chapters after this, but I began to lose interest in this. They devolved from amazing theories to ramblings, and I can only assume this is because in writing this, the man neared the end of his age and began to fall to me. If I had known what a mind he might have become, perhaps I would have let him live for decades more.

I picked up the second of the books that I wished to read, and opened the first page. It was a long one, and the author must have known this. Within the leather-bound cover was a glossary, containing the following categories.

 **Chapter 1 - The Grimm; a summary.**

 **Chapter 2 - Origins**

 **Chapter 3 - Creation**

 **Chapter 4 - Biology**

 **Chapter 5 -** **Colonization**

 **Chapter 6 - Species**

 **Chapter 7 - Varientals**

 **Chapter 8 - Ancient and Alpha Grimm**

 **Chapter 9 - Grimm of Legend**

 **Chapter 10 - Dispersion Effect**

 **Chapter 11 - Age and Influence**

 **Chapter 12 - Salem**

 **Chapter 13 - Grimm Herding**

 **Chapter 14 - The Experiments**

 **Chapter 15 - Soul Implamentation**

 **Chapter 16 - Dust Infusion**

 **Chapter 17 - Human/Grimm Infusion**

 **Chapter 18 - Knowledge/Soul In Grimm**

* * *

 **I'm very sorry about the wait for this chapter. During the recent snowstorm, I lost the chapter to a quick power surge and had to re-write it. The storms are over now, so the next one should be coming out in reasonable time.**

 **The next chapter, if you wish to skip it, is mainly going to be the experience of Darren reading this book, and will not contain much speech. Other than a few stray thoughts from Darren, it will basically be an informative for this kind of thing. Depending on how many words this ends up being, there may or may not be story after that.**

 **Fear not though, the chapter after that is when we jump back into the action and some of the canon.**


	12. Chapter 12

The book in my hands was much younger than all of the others, though the dusted state of it would not suggest so. The paper was bound tightly in black, shining leather, and the paper was a bone white. The troubling thing about it was that I could almost feel the darkness coming off of the book. The man who wrote it was very cold, calculating, and treated people more like players and pieces than those with souls. I could sense no emotion in his aura traces.

The book was also much longer than the rest, as I had mentioned, and I was preparing the task of reading it. Although as I wrote this, I realized there was no way to summarize this. So I will simply copy the text. Here you have it.

 **Chapter 1 - The Grimm**

I'm sure you have all heard the tales of the Grimm. The creatures of darkness and destruction that lack a soul. Of course these are correct in assumption, but only scratching the barest surfaces of what they are. The following is a compilation of the tough and true facts of what the Grimm really are. For now, I will simply say that they are much more than mindless creatures with red eyes and a lust for blood.

 **Chapter 2 - Origins**

The stories you tell your kids at night start with man, overseen by the God of Darkness and the God of Light. They say that Light created man, and watched him prosper for a time. But the God of Darkness became enraged, and sent forth from the darkness swaths of Grimm to return humanity to the void. Of course it all ends happily-ever-after, with humanity finding dust and combating the Grimm. Life is no fairy tale.

The true creation of the Grimm came from a twisted little soul called Salem. We'll talk more about her later. Just keep in mind that the Grimm are hers, and they are an act of revenge. She is the root of Grimm, and gives them their existence.

When she first created Grimm, it was a simple creature, barely more than a small fox. But the humans, they were terrified of it. They had never seen a creature of such hate and blood-lust before. They knew animals would attack if provoked, but never had one come walking out of the shadows and tore out a man's throat without second thoughts, and went for more.

Of course this small Grimm was killed fast by clubs and spears, but the fear was planted. The first emotion that Grimm preyed upon. With this seed planted, Salem was able to create more Grimm, stronger, and the cycle began. The Grimm would come, stronger, and kill many humans, and then die. But more fear would be there, and then stronger Grimm would rise to this fear.

The only thing that allowed this cycle to be broken was the discovery of dust and Aura. While the first aura user is lost in time, as well as how the first aura was unlocked, Dust was an element. Dig deep enough into the ground, and you pull out some crystals. These crystals allowed some strength and confidence to creep back into the humans, and it broke the cycle, instead becoming a deadly dance still danced today.

 **Chapter 3 - Creation**

At first we all thought that Grimm were born from the shadows themselves, but we were wrong. The discovery of spawning pools changed everything. Spawning Pools, quite literally condensed Darkness, brought forth the husks of Grimm that you know. Now, these husks alone are truly mindless. They will not kill, react, think, or make a sound. They are not drawn to anything, and few seldom move. Until that is, they are filled with emotions.

The main emotions that Grimm are filled by are anger, fear, sadness, and to lesser extents, doubt, distrust, and frustration. I say anger first, because that is what their creation was, an act of anger and revenge. But again, we'll get to that when we talk about Salem. Back to being filled, Grimm take these ever present emotions and it fills them with strength and drive, as well as an instinctual drawing to those feelings.

In this state, they are simple creatures of darkness. Volatile and dangerous due to their strength and short-fuse. But they are not Grimm yet, something is missing. They haven't opened their red eyes. You see, Salem's anger and vengeance is the final piece to the Grimm, filling them with the red-hot temperament and blood-lust we all know. Few Grimm can resist this unless nearly ancient.

There are theories that destroying the source of anger, Salem, would leave only husks as the worst-case scenario, killing them all in best-case.

 **Chapter 4 - Biology**

Grimm, surprisingly enough, are just like you and me, kind of. They've got a brain, a heart, stomach, blood, and most of the other essential organs. They don't have any waste organs, attributed to the fact that they have no digestive acids to eat things. They actually don't need to eat, and only due so as either a presented fear-tactic, or because they like the taste. Take your pick.

Although, theories run that they eat to regenerate. More on that later.

They have a very impressive muscle system, containing nearly triple the tension found in similar sized muscles in humans and other animals, their jaw and upper body in particular. That is what makes them so fast and strong.

I mentioned Grimm's digestive systems a moment ago. With no waste organs or digestive acids to speak of, and we have searched thoroughly, we cannot come forwards with an answer as to where the chunks of human goes when eaten. Even after gorging on entire bodies of humans and other large animals, Grimm have never been observed to regurgitate or produce any sort of waste from the material eaten.

Grimm have been cut open mere minutes after consuming said bodies and it has been found that little or none of the matter remains within the empty, fluid filled stomach. This fluid mind you, roughly matches their black blood, but is less viscous and observed to dissolve faster.

The running theory for this, before proper documentation, was a pocket dimension or void housed within the stomach, one that ruptures and dissipates rapidly after the vessel (stomach) has also done so. Then scientists 'coaxed' a few Grimm into the consumption of cameras and a variety of sensors. The camera's footage was lost almost immediately after being eaten.

The sensors however, before being destroyed, transmitted the data of rapid erosion and rotting on a molecular level. The device, and coincidentally, more concrete information was lost within the Grimm, but we learned the space within it rapidly rots and destroys things to such an extent that there is no observable matter left. Theories go that this plays a large part in the regeneration factor of Grimm, with any and all matter being converted to the stomach liquid.

Somehow though, and completely baffling to our scientists, Grimm can scar. And smaller, more decadent wounds can scar more easily than deadly onces, like cutting off of a limb.

Speaking of the regeneration of Grimm, we found that all parts of the Grimm are roughly of the same structure of molecules. It is like water and ice, different states of the same matter. This is why the leading theory is that the stomach acid is actually a storage to regenerate lost parts, be it hair, bone, skin, or blood. The matter is rapidly disassembled and reassembled into the fluid found in the stomach, and when the Grimm is injured, this matter reassembles into the needed parts.

Below is a short list of the many trials performed on Beowolves alone.

 **Damage Trial #1-A**

Grimm is damaged severely, with a total of 2.3lbs of matter removed from the full body. After six hours in containment, the removed matter has completely regenerated.

 **Damage Trial #1-B**

The same Grimm is damaged again, removing one arm below the elbow, and cracking major bone plates. After six hours, the bone plates show minor reparation and the arm has stumped, but regenerated no further over the following six hours. At that point, the Grimm began to weaken and die due to time in captivity. Note the subject had been in captivity for two days beforehand.

 **Damage Trial #2**

A freshly captured subject is injured, allowed to heal, and injured again until the point of regeneration ceases. The Grimm is fed 2lbs of venison while a similar weighted section of arm is also removed. After six hours, the arm has almost completely regenerated. This trial is repeated with similar successes each time.

 **Captivity Trial #1**

The Grimm are known to die in captivity at a maximum of one week. Grimm at four days is fed 10lbs of various meats, but shows no improvement in the process of dying. At five days, a live deer is released into the containment cell in order to simulate the hunt. Grimm ignored the deer, swiping only when it came too close, and died on day six.

 **Captivity Trial #2-A**

Grimm at day five has begun process of dying. This time, a loved pet, willingly sacrificed, was released into the chamber as the owner watched. Again the Grimm showed no interest, aside from some attention placed on the owner filled with worry and fear. Animal retrieved safely.

 **Captivity Trial #2-B**

Grimm at day six is nearly dead, showing little to no activity. Using neural-stimulation, three subjects are placed in front of the cell. The emotions are anger, fear, and sadness. After two hours of exposure, the Grimm improved slightly, lasting to day seven. The subjects however, could take no more.

 **Captivity Trial #2-C**

Taking the day seven Beowolf, a live human is released into the cell with all three neural simulators attached. The human was a prisoner on Death Row, and was borrowed from a prison. The Beowolf actively, albeit slowly hunted and killed the human in the cell. The Grimm improved greatly in comparison to other actions, but ultimately died a few hours short of day eight.

 **Chapter 5 - Colonization of Grimm**

Grimm, aside from some large species of sea-fairing Grimm, are land mammals. They breath oxygen, walk on two legs, and actually aren't very good swimmers. Now, the sparse spawning pools found across the main continents of Remnant do not explain or justify the extreme numbers of Grimm found inland. So, there must be a way for them to transfer from the Grimm-lands, the home of Grimm and Salem, to mainland Remnant.

Originally we suspected that a large sea craft must be responsible, but this was disputed as the Grimm could not construct or operate something of this maginitude, let alone stay off of our radars with it. So another solution must be present. We couldn't exactly ask them though.

So, people in my organization secretly stayed at beaches encircling one of the continents, hidden from the public or anything coming from the sea. After many months of no activity we began to fear other theories may be closer, such as massive undersea caves and or more hidden, larger spawning pools. So we looked at our data of Grimm populations, recalling half of our men until further notice.

In the data, we found a pattern. At a certain part of the year, Grimm populations would spike suddenly after being dwindled by hunter and human activity all year round. There was also a sharp decline that balanced things out, the hunter initiation. At this time, the schools were only barely forming when we made this discovery.

So, we recalled all of our men and waited until a few weeks around the spike, and got in position. 22 days later the men on a near abandoned beach radioed in and filmed the Grimm colonization. What we saw surprised us. Giant, beyond leviathan class Grimm beached themselves upon to land and opened their mouths. Out from that poured Goliaths, Beowolves, Ursai, and all other kinds of Grimm. The creatures were gigantic and rushed into the woods, filling the continent.

The men in the area were lost to the horde, but the data sent was invaluable. We found out the Grimm's colonization methods, and began experimenting with ideas to stop them, or at least we tried. With me being the head of all the projects, I banned any active attacks on the Gargantuan, as we called them. Grimm of such size were important, and the slight injuring of one would most certainly alert Salem to their discovery.

If we were to attack, it could not fail. Of course, with the Grimm being the size of some buildings, and literal armies being inside, total destruction while remaining undercover was virtually impossible. We would simply send an anonymous note to the kingdoms to increaser thier numbers at the colonization sites, and hope that helped.

 **Chapter 6 - Species**

I'm sure that everyone knows the average species of Grimm that they teach you in your hunting academies. The **Beowolves** , twisted wolves that walk on all fours or twos, the leading animal in any Grimm attack. Led by **Alphas**.

 **Ursai** , the bear-like Grimm and muscle of any Grimm attack. Dominated by **Ursa Majors**.

 **Boarbatusk** , cannon fodder really. They're a lot like boar.

 **Nevermore** , the sky Grimm. Giant raven-like Grimm that are old and powerful, decimating buildings.

 **Deathstalkers** , mean giant scorpions with a deadly poison stinger. A walking tank.

 **Creeps** , the speedy, blind Grimm that span distances in rapid-fire attacks. One of the only subterranean Grimm known.

And finally, **Goliaths**. Great mammoths of Grimm, who are nearly indestructible. They are also old, and have learned to stray and pick their battles. Mostly though, they wander in herds.

There, that's the basics. But what about the Grimm you don't know about, the one's they don't teach you due to a lack of information and or population. Let's start with Geists. Geists are ghostly Grimm with the ability to posses any object they come into contact with, with the more powerful ones possessing larger objects. Some ancient ones have even possessed mounds of rock the size of mountains, and were once worshiped as wrathful gods.

Their weakness is to either destroy the host body, nearly impossible, or to attack the head. The head is the only part of the Geist that stays materialized, and is usually slightly armored. If you attack the head, then hit the body hard enough, you can stun it enough to take out the true body. Bullets will work for that. Note that they cannot posses humans.

Next we can talk about the more interesting ones. **Seers** are medium sized, jellyfish-like Grimm that act as Salem's ears and eyes out in the field, as she seldom leaves the Grimm-lands. Don't let their size fool you though, because the stingers are razor sharp and overwhelmingly strong in numbers. They have the odd effect of a crystal orb of children stories, but for two-way communication.

Next there are **Griffons** , the more agile of Salem's sky Grimm. They seem to be a mix of small Nevermore and something else entirely. Because their DNA matches no other animals, it is hard to say.

 **King Tajitu** , the snake Grimm, and their smaller counterparts, princes. The kings are giant, bus-sized snakes with two heads of opposing color schemes and they can act independently, making them a double edged sword, Fortunately, their venom isn't deadly. The **Prince's** venom however, is overwhelmingly so, and their size makes it easier to strike.

A small cure for it's venom was found in a small mountain village called Shimitani. Even with the cure, it incapacitates the victim for days. Surviving the venom however, grants an aura boost for the time being, that raises the user's maximum aura level slightly, for the rest of their life.

There is now the **Beringel** , or **Gore Ape**. This gorilla Grimm is overwhelmingly strong, and seems to be more intelligent due to it's ability to strategist with other Grimm, mainly throwing them at another target. Surprisingly, its regeneration effect comes back with stronger skin and eventually bone the more it is damaged, making it stronger every-time it survives an encounter with a hunter.

There are a few unkown and undocumented species of Grimm, such as **Valos** , large humanoid Grimm who posses strength potency much higher than even Grimm should have, and a keen inteligence.

We've already talked about **Gargantuan** earlier, so that leaves us finished with the regular Grimm. Let's move on to a quick syllabus of the Variantals.

 **Chapter 7 - The Variantals**

The Variantals known by a less common name, "Mutaloid Grimm" are scattered breeds of Grimm that have mutated to become something better than they once were. Some of them may become larger, stronger, faster, or smarter than any other of their breed. The change is always accompanied by an extremely obvious physical change, some of which may not look natural.

Some documented cases are overly large, not giant, Beowolves; Nevermore's with wings tipped by blades of bone, and Ursai with four arms. There was once the occurrence of a Beowolf that could understand human speech perfectly, and showed no hostility. The effects can also be as faint as differently shaped claws or bone structures.

Sometimes, though incredible rarely, these become a new species of Grimm. It is supposed that the Ursa Majors were of this occurrence, along with Griffons. Other times, even more rarely, they mutate to become so strong that they are categorized as Grimm of Legend. But enough of the Variantals.

 **Chapter - Ancient, Alpha, and Giant Grimm**

These are all very distinct groups, and should not be mistaken, even if one Grimm alludes to more than one. Let's explain them.

Ancient Grimm are simply Grimm that have grown older and learned to survive past the base instincts bestowed upon them by Salem. They know to flee from a fight if needed, and will sometimes ignore humans entirely. They sometimes have the ability to bend younger Grimm to their will. These Grimm are usually decorated by a plethora of scars from battles, and it is unknown why they have them. They also have greater and more jagged bone-plate growths that are sometimes tipped. Their markings also appear darker than the younger Grimm.

Alpha Grimm are sometimes confused with Ancient Grimm for two reasons, they can both control lesser Grimm of the same species, and Alphas do often live to become ancient. There are plenty of young alphas however, and that is what you need to know about. The reason these alphas have the ability to control and to an extent, 'guide', the lesser Grimm is not known. It has been discovered though that a pack of Beowolves lose their synchronicity and any strategy they have when the Alpha is killed. So target it.

Finally there is Giant Grimm, which is less often confused, but often is part of the other two categories, if not both. Now, there are large Variant Beowolves that stand 1-2 stories high, but those are only large. The true Giants stand at shoulder level with the treetops or above, and stop at nothing. Younger and smaller Grimm of all kinds flock to their presence.

An interesting fact about Giants is that their eyes tend to be a glowing grey, instead of red. This provides them with a hollowed look that somehow is more terrifying than the evil red.

 **Chapter 9 - Grimm of Legend**

Ah, finally we get to the Grimm of Legend, my personal favorite category. As I mentioned earlier, Variantals can sometimes become Grimm of Legend through the sheer extent of their evolutionary mutations. Buy we won't talk about them, as they are technically lesser legends. Let's talk about the big names, and their current locations.

BoneCladden, located in the deepest reaches of the Shimitani forests, is an immovable force. Having the basic shape of a bipedal Beowolf, this Grimm is entirely covered by thick, near indestructible bone plates, and the skin that is in areas needed for joints is on a grade above Atlesian Kevlar. The markings on the bones as well as the eyes of this creature burn a bright blue, and shunts blue embers rather than typical Grimm Miasma.

* * *

Alpha War-hound, located in Shimitani Forest - A large Grimm that has the Alpha and Ancient status, controlling smaller War-hounds. War-hounds themselves are like your typical dire-wolf of legend, but with thin red streaks decorating their fur, claws, and teeth. They posses extreme durability, strength, and speed. They require almost a full brain destruction to put them down.

The Alpha is much like the regular War-hounds. Except its fur is mostly covered in red swirling patterns that sparse the black. The claws, teeth, and eyes all glow a bright white. It is incredibly fast, and possesses extreme stealth capabilities, able to sneak up behind experienced hunters without them knowing.

* * *

The Barron, located in Shimitani's caves, is a huge Minotaur-like Grimm, standing at 1 1/2 stories tall and wielding a bone mace. Bone plates decorate the shoulders, elbows, and knees of the creature, as well as the huge horns. The skin on the creature is amazingly thick and durable. The Grimm also houses two unique abilities.

Siphoning, which allows The Barron to shoot tendrils from its hands and siphon Grimm matter from other creatures for regeneration. It can also learn at an impeccable rate, even for humans. its red eyes will flash once as it regards and stores what it has learned.

* * *

The last creature in Shimitani is the Wendigo, a bipedal Beowolf esque Grimm that has no bone plates, and seems to understand human speech. Its special ability however is speed. The rate at which the creature can run rivals and overcomes any normal speed semblance known. With attacks based on rapid reppitition and speed-fueled kinetic energy, it is deadly.

* * *

Forevermore, located in the plains near the Ice Fangs - An odd instance of Nevermore that has existed as far back as we can date, hence the name. So far there are no means of killing this bird. While a normal Nevermore's feathers are already hard, sharp, and a source of armor, the Forevermore's feathers are entirely made of bone with black markings. The eyes are black as well.

The bones remain un-shattered even under bombardment from approximately 12 flak cannons powered with Gravity Dust rounds. When used as a weapon, they prove to be twice as sharp as the normal feathers. It does not help that the Forevermore is also in the class of Giant, being 3x the size of the largest recorded Nevermore, and 4x the size of the one recently killed at Beacon's latest hunter initiation.

* * *

The Grimm Dragon is currently sealed within the mountain nearest to Beacon Academy, and has been there for the past 1,000 years. While larger than most Nevermore, it is smaller than the Forevermore. This Grimm completely understands human speech, and has the ability to create small, temporary spawning pools for Grimm. Larger Grimm are also drawn to its presence.

* * *

The Sea Dragon is a large Grimm that spends its time encircling the island of Menagerie, and has the odd ability of lightning breath. Observation for how this happens has been impossible. The creature's skin is very tough, surviving cannon blasts with ease.

* * *

The Mammoth is incredible in size, and accommodates all three categories mentioned earlier. Being approximately 10x the size of normal Goliaths, and covered head to hoof in bone plates, we are very glad this creature only exists circling the entrances to the Grimm-lands. It is ancient, possibly one of the first Grimm, and has herds of regular Goliaths following it at all times.

* * *

There are a few other legends wandering around Remnant, the Red Wolf, Stranger, Shadow-Walker, but as of now, we don't have the definitive information to include them within the contents of this book.

I'll tell you now, in case pure information bores you. The final chapters of this, save for two of them, are made of our many documentations and experiments on these subjects. Continue if you so choose.

 **Chapter 10 - Dispersion Effect**

We all know the simple rules of the Grimm. They have no soul. They have no aura. They bleed, and any part of the body that is cut off of killed, dissolves into thin air, save for your incredibly rare spoils of war. Now, the first thing we though was that the molecular structure of Grimm and whatever force was holding it together ceased when the host died. But that matter had to go somewhere, right?

So we tested that. In vacuum rooms, open air, air-tight rooms, underwater, the whole nine yards. What we found was that in a room devoid of all matter, save for the room itself, the matter did not exist anymore. It faded away entirely, the ashes becoming dust and the dust becoming whatever is after that. Nonexistence, apparently.

Either way, or next assumption was that there was nothing to catch the matter. So we installed in the room high-powered air pumps combined with oxygen-scrubs. We turned them on, killed the Grimm, and watched the effect. As the Grimm dissolved, the matter was caught by our near windstorm and sucked to the filters. After the body had fully dispersed, we checked the filters. Empty.

If we could not find a way to preserve Grimm matter, how could we keep an entire Grimm carcass intact. Next we tried underwater, and using using natural means. Perhaps if we did not murder it, but it died, the effect might not perceive a threat. More theories without harm of test. We weighed down a Beowolf with cinder blocks and dropped it into a pool 100ft deep, and another at 12.

The first died from the pressure long before drowning. The blood spilled into the water, temporarily blacking out our cameras. After three minutes, the blackness began to clear and showed no remains of the wolf. The one drowned however, its body sat in the bottom of the pool, dissolving incredibly slowly. The fur was only just dispersed away to half length at ten minutes.

A thanks was said to the man who perceived the rapid dispersion as a defense mechanism against researching purposes. We attempted to retrieve the Beowolf from the bottom of the pool, but at human touch it crumbled away like a child's sand castle long-since dried.

With no proper way to get Grimm matter to synthesize and stabilize, we were forced to hold down a Beowolf under an electromagnetic microscope. Our hopes were that if we could isolate elements then we could find others to forcefully keep them bonded. As we said near the beginning, every part of the Grimm is made of the same material, down to the atomic level. An unknown material.

With the many elements discovered and even more alloy elements as well as dust and dust-melded elements, it would, and is taking years to subject Grimm biology to each of them. For now though, we know what makes the Dispersion Effect tick.

 **Chapter 11 - Salem**

Before we delve any further into our topics that are now going to become no longer natural Grimm effects, I would like to finalize what you now know by telling you the history of Salem and the Grimm, from day one.

The first thing you must absolutely know is that Salem was human once. You have got to keep this in mind for any of this to make sense to you.

The humans rose out of dust, actual dust from the ground, and awoke to a world shrouded and darkness and mystery and danger. Their first instinct was to survive. And the first humans did that very well. Delving into jungles and forests, plains and plateaus, they gathered rock, wood, water and food. The first settlement was born, but it did not have a name. The concept of names was not yet, but very soon. It would have a name, at a later date.

History likes to say that the Grimm are truthfully what tried to return mankind to the void, but it was really the beasts. not creatures of darkness, but of the same primal instinct and rage that they have. Of course these creatures were weaker than Grimm, and were killed and feasted upon by the humans after they crafted weapons.

These beasts are actual where names got their start. They needed a way to signal to each other what beast was coming for them, and how to kill it. Names and language came, and advancement soon after. Decades later, Humans had mined metal and blacksmith were made, but it was still a very primitive outpost that the humans lived in.

The second thing you have to know, is that humans refuse to be alone. We will, even with ourselves and the wild for company, come up with more powerful and greater things. Enter The Gods, church, and religion.

Humans made a religion out of things, and sought to repent for the things that they had done as savages in years past. How could they though, without punishing themselves. Each of their crimes in lives past was thought to be punishable by death, so the needed a catalyst.

All their hate, crimes, and whatever other names you have for the dark spot in the hearts of man, was aimed towards a girl named Salem. Unwillingly she was made the target of redemption. For hours and days they tortured and killed her, making it as slow and painful as hundreds, before throwing her to the beasts in the wild, thinking they were rid of that darkness now, and that they were better for it.

Salem, weak and barely able to move, with most of her bones broken and blood bled out of her, was victim to the beasts in the wild. She was questioning to this line of thinking, afraid of her death at beasts, sad that this was how she would leave. But mostly, she was mad. More than mad, more than angry at them for doing this to her.

She was **_VENGEFUL._**

Never before had the world seen an emotion so pure as vengeance, and the animals, their primal instinct and rage, responded to it. As they came out of the shadows to consume her, she locked eyes with one, and commanded it with all the hate in her heart. As her eyes turned red and her skin pale, and the blood in her ran black, she uttered a single word that every creature in that forest heard.

 _ **KILL**_

And they did. Running by her in a concentration and focus that humans had never seen from them before, they made their way to the settlement of Ignis. Salem sat in the forest alone, her soul corrupting and collapsing in on itself. Plenty of times someone had wished and acted upon wanting someone dead. Never though, had someone wanted death on such a large and dark scale. The weight of it was too much.

As the attack went on, her soul twisted and became something darker, a mockery of a soul. True darkness was born inside of her. She stood, her body rearranging to pump darkness through her veins and support the weight of her anger. She became less than human, yet so much more.

The animals that had responded to her were just that, animals. They were killed and driven off with few casualties in Ignis, but the fear was there. Salem could feel it. But the attack had failed, and she screamed in rage, a sound that echoed through the forest and back to the village. Inwardly she felt the spike of fear the sound created.

Despite her anger though, she turned away from the village and deeper into the forest. The animals followed her into a cave humans hadn't explored or knew about. For one week Salem stayed inside that cave, trying to figure out just what she had become, and what she could do. Each day an attack was rushed by the animals to Ignis and against the people that had wronged her.

Each time they were repelled and killed by arrows, spears, and an old man with a piece of metal that spit fire. The first gun. Each failure stung more than the last as the realization dawned on Salem. Even as what she had become, she was still weaker than them, a victim who was helpless. If only there were more like here.

She grabbed the beast next to her, now jagged fingernails digging through the fur and skin, drawing blood. The beast growled, but didn't dare move or attack her. It was afraid, as it should have been. "Why? Why can't you hate like I can?" She half sobbed and half screamed, nails digging deeper. The beast howled and something happened.

Her fingertips splintered and webbed outwards, deeper into the beast she held and lashing to the nearest veins. Before Salem had a chance to let go, the beast shuddered, its howling becoming a human sounding scream as its eyes began to glow red and its blood ran black to match Salem's own. After that was done, the true metamorphosis began.

The animal's skin and fur turned black and its size stretched. Muscles tore and reformed as bones broke and generated to accommodate the new space. Random spaced of skin split and bones protruded from them. The wolf's maw elongated with its tongue and a taste for blood filled it.

As the transformation completed, both Salem and the first Grimm sat, breathing heavily from exertion, but Salem was smiling. The rest is history.

The humans were attacked a few days later by beasts of a much larger caliber than before, and Ignis fell. The remaining humans ran, some into caves. There they found dust, and managed to drive back the Grimm, creating the circle I mentioned earlier.

Salem experimented with her powers for centuries, learning how to create spawning pools to recreate the altered beasts, and eventually learning how to summon completely new Grimm.

 **Chapter 13 - Grimm Herding**

Grimm herding is a currently forbidden practice, though some still use it. The process behind it is simple, torture a human, and bait Grimm. Usually this is done via airship with a suspended cage of human(s) who are either being tortured at the moment or have experienced torture before. Then, you would take this cage through a low altitude near a Grimm infested area.

The end result would be a train of all Grimm in the area following the cage. Then it was up to the herder to do what they wanted. Usually in old wars, the airship would release the cage into a nearby enemy stronghold, effectively launching a Grimm based attack. Other times, though not nearly as common, it was used as a relocation effort.

A few notes. Grimm herding does not apply to older and smarter Grimm, so the attack would be filled with younger Beowolves and Ursai as a majority. Grimm herding is also advised against in an area with Nevermore for obvious reasons. Finally, Grimm Herding obviously kills the torture victims. Always.

Now, there is a variant of Grimm Herding called Grimm Hot-spotting . The goal is to apply such pain onto a multitude of people that their deaths literally _stain_ the area with the emotions of them. The result is many young, and even sometimes older Grimm, to stay in the area. This is good for guarding old relics or entrances you know you will not frequent.

Note, there is no current way to cleanse the area of Grimm Hot-spotting, therefore the effect is permanent.

The following is a map of remnant containing all known Grimm Hot-spots and previously used Herding Lines.

 **Chapter 14 - Soul** **Implementation**

Grimm are, by definition, soulless creatures of darkness. But we have wondered for many decades whether or not giving a Grimm a soul would make them good again, perhaps returning them to the beast they were modeled after, or if it would bite us in the asses by creating a Grimm with a semblance.

We took an immense amount of care to contain any test subjects.

Briefly I will explain a few of our methods and theories about how we have tried to force a soul into a Grimm. The first was simple aura healing. Aura healing combines the aura, aka the extension of the soul, with another in order to boost natural aura healing. This was chosen first because in extreme cases of aura healing, soul 'fracturing' was known to happen.

We forced a prisoner with unlocked aura and aura healing education to heal a restrained Grimm. After a few minutes his aura ran out, so we held the man at gunpoint and forced him further. The glow of his aura returned, but our sensors detected a different pattern. Aura was reforming at a much faster rate than normal, allowing the man to continue. At the same time, his health began rapidly deteriorating.

We deduced that the man, in a panic, had begun to burn off his soul to gain more aura, but he still wasn't transferring the soul. We ordered him to stop and let him recover. After a few hours, he showed decreased emotions of all kinds during the interview. When asked how it felt at first, he said he was pouring his aura on a wall. Afterwards, he described the later act as the same, but with a horrible burning. The Grimm showed no aura on or in it.

* * *

The second method was Aura Training, our own creation. We took two people and one Grimm. The two were asked to link hands and one was to touch the Grimm. Then we continuously damaged the middle man while another attempted to heal him, until his aura was gone. Then at gun point, he was told his life depended on healing the man.

Then, we told the middle man to begin trying to aura heal the Grimm. Our sensors detected the first man's soul fracturing, or at least what looked like it. He began screaming in pain in fear, as did the man in the middle. The Grimm began howling when the sensors showed distinct pieces of condensed 'something' entered the middle man and traveled through his arms to the Grimm.

The hand touching the Grimm began to glow in a volatile way, and the Grimm's fur in the area darkened and Grimm fog formed more at the contact site. Then the glow exploded. The Grimm was found with a caved in chest and the middle man's hand was gone. Furthermore, the two of them showed spliced personalities. They were kept for further research on the effect of splicing souls. Out of our field, but interesting nonetheless.

* * *

The third method is a simple one. Aura and Aura Production injections. Using a form of dust power-cell, we were able to push aura into the host Grimm, in the same way we can make a brick have aura. It couldn't do anything with it, and I suspect it barely knew it was there. Surprisingly enough though, the aura stayed within it. More experiments ensued after.

Below are logs of numerous experiments.

 **Chapter 15 - Dust Infusion**

One of the experimental trials that we conducted after managing to put aura inside of a Grimm, was Dust Infusion. As everyone on the planet knows, dust reacts with aura, becoming volatile and actively discharges energy.

Something less known, is that if dust is put inside of the human body, two things could happen, sometimes both. Firstly, if the person's semblance allows for it, their aura will directly absorb the similar power, and the depleted dust crystals will either be removed, or dissolved if small enough. The second possibility, is that the user's aura and semblance will become eclipsed by the dust, fueling and directing their attacks.

One of the problems with dust injections however, is that in the bloodstream of a person with aura, the dust has the peculiar behavior of growing. I don't believe I need to tell you how bad crystals growing in your blood is. Best case scenario, the dust merges with your skin, if embedded. Worst case, the dust fractures under the skin and leeches into the bloodstream, growing and encasing the heart in a rock of dust.

A Grimm's blood doesn't have aura though. If dust were to be left in, and it certainly wouldn't be used up, it may allow the Dust to grow in a controlled rate and area. This combined with a Grimm's usual anger and aggression, as well as the aura in it, could give way to a Grimm able to use dust. There was a lot of resistance to this project because it meant making stronger Grimm. All risks for the greatest rewards, I say.

So we went ahead with the project, and there were many failures and many Grimm-shaped dust crystals lying around. Finally though, we managed it. Using a link with two or more electrode-like injectors of aura, we were able to sustain and cement a passage of aura within the beast. Then we placed the dust crystals inside the outer exits of those passages.

Using some less than willing prisoners, we had them activate the crystals, and by extent, the aura within it. Our first subject, a small Beowolf, began to writhe in agony almost instantly after activation. Monitors showed that blood flow within it increased 5x, and the blood attacked the dust. Unable to harm it though, it only managed in dislodging pieces of it.

These microscopic pieces were carried through the body before settling in the veins and arteries located within the passages of aura. Then something amazing happened. The two large tendrils of dust that had been placed in the shoulders of the creature activated, with the Grimm fog around it turning yellow like flecks of electricity themselves.

I'd like to say that we were prepared for this kind of aggression and volatility, but we weren't. Four of our best men were taken down before we managed to subdue the beast. In hindsight, issuing a 'kill' order instead of 'capture' would have ended better.

Below are a list of the effects each type of known dust has on a Beowolf. Further beyond are all other Grimm we have experimented on. Then we have the locations of the subjects currently alive, and many other trials that we have tested with.

 **Beowolf - Blaze Dust**

Eyes turn a shade brighter red, and all Grimm fog becomes embers. Aggression increases 400%, even going as far as snapping at its own embers. The Grimm gains rudimentary control of the dust in its body, but mostly just becomes a walking powerhouse with flames extenuating its every movement. Body temperature rises to the point where impaling it turns a blade a dull red.

 **Beowolf - Lightning Dust**

Aggression increases 200%. Speed increases 750% in short burst attacks, and 250% in long distance. Eyes turn an electric yellow with arcs coming from them. Claws become sharper with time, and contain most of the electricity in the body. Gains a 10-foot EMP field.

Beowolf - Earth Dust

Incompatible. After five minutes of fusing, the subjects movements become sluggish and brown spots start to appear around the dust. The entirety of the Grimm body is converted to a type of "Grimm Granite" within the hour.

Beowolf - Gravity Dust

Eyes turn purple. Relative weight of the creature quadruples. Surprisingly, even though Gravity is the hardest dust to control, it seems to be the easiest for Grimm. After a week of practice on hunts, the Grimm has learned to lower its relative weight to 25% for speed, and 400% for heavy handed attacks.

Beowolf - Air Dust

Incompatible. Subjects, along with all other kinds of Grimm except Nevermore explode during the infusion process.

 **Chapter 16 - Human/Grimm Infusion - Mention how these are hunted down by Hunter/Killers, and what those are**

Reading this book, you may have already felt we have delved far enough into the darkness of Grimm science. I say not far enough. We took a large number of prisoners, and attempted to integrate them with Grimm DNA, and the results were astonishing.

The legends say of a Grimm called The Stranger, who could inject you with Grimm matter and turn you into a Grimm, but we had no such legend on hand. So our first and only attempt to transform a human into a Grimm, was simple transfusion. We strapped down a Beowolf who had recently eaten a great deal, and began to feed its blood through a tube while slowly draining different amounts of the blood. Five test subjects were transfused.

 **Subject 1 - 1% Blood Transfusion**

This subject was drained of a few mili-liters of blood and replaced with Grimm blood. Though some dissolved in the tube, most was transferred into the host body. After a few minutes, we found the blood did not dissolve in the human bloodstream like we thought it would. We left the subject for a week, and other than harsh sickness and increased aggression, hate, and all other things Grimm, he continued to live normally. Until terminated.

 **Subject 2 - 10% Blood Transfusion**

Same as before for subject 1, but after the first day, things began to happen. After waking up the first morning of the week with incredible soreness, two days were given to heal. During this time, reported nightmares of violent kind were reported, and some disgust to the acts as well. Upon day three, the subject began having bouts of violence towards guards, and then vomiting after. On day five, the bouts increased to hourly, and the disgust was gone. Anger was slowly taking its place. Note that during this time, they did sometimes show regret and a knowing that they were being corrupted.

On day six they passed out entirely, in a constant state of agony when awakened. On day seven, they were no longer themselves. They possessed all of their memories, but they meant nothing. Strength had doubled and a regeneration factor had surfaced. Over the coming weeks, the body slowly became more and more Grimm, until they were a kind of humanoid Beowolf.

On one case a repeat subject escaped, and was hunted down by a Jäger-Mörder, Hunter-Killer. These were originally men trained to hunt down rouge hunters, but they did the trick.

 **Subject 3 - 25% Blood Transfusion**

Subject underwent the first parts of the process, but in half the time of 10% infusion, but required a few days of recovery after they lost themselves, due to how much more violent their metamorphosis was.

 **Subject 4 - 50% Blood Transfusion**

Subject died within the day, and the body dissolved.

 **Subject 5 - 100% - Drained until blood ran black.**

Subject died within the hour, and the body dissolved.

Below are all existing subjects and every log made.

* * *

I snapped the old cover shut and placed the book flat on the desk again, and leaned back into the chair. That book was a true fountain of information of all things Grimm, and the creator's ruthless pursuit of knowledge appealed to me. This man, "Darhk' and I would have gotten along.

Now the book may have seemed short, and in wording, it was. But the true size of the book was filled with pages upon pages of lab documentations of all their experimentations done, going into greater detail than those I listed. In a way, half of the last chapter had been a single log out of dozens more. The same went for many of the other chapters.

I glanced once at the books I had nto read yet, and smiled. The Lock-Box would undoubtedly survive my attack on Beacon no matter how great. The inside may be damaged somewhat by quakes if the battle went that far, but it would survive. I would read through the rest of these books after my attack as a sort of victory. It would be nice to find out just how much humans knew about the things they have claimed to master.

Standing up from the desk with a sigh of contentment, I placed the book back on the shelf with the others. The collection of all knowledge that humanity deemed important enough to hide. Or maybe not... Did the other Lock-Boxes contain other Dark Archives within them. I may very well have to see that for myself after a time.

But that was another time and place, and right now I probably needed to get back. I had after all looked through most of the documents in the book, and it was night now if not near morning. I needed to get back as the long trek through the woods would unboubtedly take some time if I didn't want to speed through it. No sense in rushing things that don't need it.

So I stepped out of the Dark Archives and made sure the door locked before turning my sights on the exit. Time to find out where that went.

 ***SMASH* a sound like glass shattering with steel**

My astral body was torn from me and my conciousness slammed backwards to my body above. What had happened?! Did my Sigil run out? No, that was impossible. It didn't matter. I would soon find out. I could feel whatever passed for a soul in my existence settle back into the body I had made.

My eyes opened, and you could see the anger. Of course, I think you would have noticed the 8ft tall humanoid Grimm standing above me, its foot on the smoldering remains of my Sigil. The Sigil that would have dientigrated any hunter on the spot. It looked at me with dark, glossy eyes and I only had a moment to wonder what it was before a fist of unexpected and unprecidented might slammed into me.

I felt myself slam through three strong trees before a large section of outcropping rock stopped me. As it was, I had left deep cracks in it and the front had dug itself out of the dirt an inch. The sword on my back left an aching indention as it had not allowed my back to absorb the force of the blow, and had instead made it worse by having no give.

Ising my arms, I dug myself out of the rock with a groan, rubbing my chest absentmindedly where the fist had hit me. "What was that?" I muttered, and then I listened. My travel must not have been as far as I had thought because I could hear the powerful, pounding footsteps as it approached me. With a breath that ranged anywhere from annoyance to easing out some of the pain in my chest, I drew my blade and amped up my defensive power.

I wasn't going to take chances with something that hit me that hard from a standstill.

 **I want to credit DeadRich18 for the idea of the Gargantua, and Gammabeta99 for Salem's history.**

 **I am incredibly sorry for the wait on this chapter. Even the slight add on to length was inexcusable for the time. I'd like to say a number of things, that I was sick or my computer broke down, but then I'd be lying. Somehow this story walked its way to the backburner of my life and stayed there for a bit. But now I've got it back on track. As you read this, I'll be writing the next chapter. See you all next time.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Got some action this chapter. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Also, in my writing style I have realized that the way Darren/Death's power works has become unclear. Let me explain. Darren has a base level, a heightened level, and two limiters. His base level is what he is naturally at. This way he is much stronger than even some of the best hunters and can take down some of the largest Grimm with little difficulty. This slowly increases into heightened.**

 **Darren's heightened state is bearing down upon his first limiter. Like this he is an army of hunters converged into one man. His power borders on the bearest hints of what it means to be a primordial force.**

 **The first limiter. This is what separates Darren's power from his body being able to take it, and then being elevated beyond the limits of living flesh.**

 **The second limiter is something I can't talk about yet.**

* * *

 **Another thing I noticed was that some people think Darren is weak and has bouts of strength. No. Darren seeks the thrill of a fight in most cases and will limit himself below heightened in order to achieve this. He prefers to rely on skill rather than strength, until you piss him off.**

 **With that said, I hope you like the chapter.**

* * *

The pounding of this new Grimm's footsteps reached me fast. I could see trenches dug up where the hoof and human mix of feet dug in for speed. I got a good look at it. Its body was covered with inch long fur that waved in its motions. I could see parts of its body that had protrusions looking like... Stonework? I could see circular temple grounds along its mid-section, miniature obelisks where Grimm bone-spikes should be. Plates of granite where caps of bone should be.

There was also sporadic black and grey dust formations along its body that exuded a somehow ancient feeling power. Its eyes though, were a polished black, large with specks like a night sky in the desert, just an hour after the first star had appeared. They held a very _cold_ anger to them.

People who became loud and violent when angry were bad, but someone who just went quiet, who's stare intensified? They were dangerous. I got my guard up, holding my sword in front of me in a defensive position.

A puff of hot breath came from the bull-like nose on its face as it stared at my sword. "Don't like that do you?" I said cockily. The creature huffed again and rushed me. I jumped up a few feet upwards and rebounded off the boulder and past it. So I thought. A grip came onto my legs and dragged me backwards in my jump and directly into the stone.

Headfirst I hit the rock, face-first. My body carried behind me and smashed through it entirely, shattering off a large chunk like a melting glacier. I tasted the impact more than I felt it. Iron.

My sword had fallen from my hand, but that didn't matter. Gritting my teeth which sent an ache up my gums, I focused my power and pushed it outwards. A black wave shunted off me and pushed the vise-grip of the humanoid Grimm open. I fell to the ground in a heap and tried to get my bearings. No time it seemed, as another huff signaled a punch from the being in front of me, downwards this time.

I was punted off my feet and onto my back, but my position never changed. Now I was staring up at it from a half-foot trench in the ground, the taste of copper becoming stronger in my mouth. I spat a solid lump of _something_ out and raised my arms in defense of the coming blows. And come they did.

The first was stronger than the last, and broke through my defense. With a rush I sent a surge of strength into my arms as well as bulking my defensive power so my arms would not break under the strain. The block barely held and a growling yell of pain broke out of my throat. The next blow came, a left hook.

I aimed to try and catch the fist by pumping my strength into my right arm, but I had miscalculated. An impenetrable grip closed on my hand and forearm. A cold slithering closed around the gaps, and I could see that the fist had basically become a lump of cement around that hand. Stone growth?

I tried to dodge the next hit, pulling my arm to my chest instead of where it lay by my side. That only got me a solid punch in the chest for my efforts, and my left arm was locked. The next thing I knew I was held up to eye level with the Grimm in front of me.

"That all you got?" I asked, knowing that my strength had a good chance of outmatching his. I say _chance_. At this point, I couldn't be sure if it was holding back. I did however get my answer in the form of a tearing feeling in my chest.

A scream managed to force its way out of my throat as I tried to force more strength and durability into my chest and arms. I could feel individual muscle sinews tearing, and the masses of muscle separating from my bones. With a loud ***POP*** I felt my shoulders dislocate. My vision blurred for a moment and I realized something. I was losing this fight, and not on purpose.

I choked back another yell of pain and lowered my eyes to the creature in front of me, and I went all out. From what I saw, the Grimm in front of me had no reaction to me unleashing some of my true power other than a slightly startled grunt. Slowly, ever so slowly, I reattached my muscles to my bones and repaired them, pulling.

Even with my eyes glowing from the power I was using, it was still a stalemate in terms of raw strength. But I had had enough of this. My hands burst into a dark purple flame inside of their stone prisons, exploding them and the beast's hands with it. I dropped to the ground and stretched my arm muscles back into place. In front of me, stone regrew into flesh around the hands of the creature. We had the same thought, but only I had the ability to voice it.

 **"You shouldn't have done that."** I said, my voice echoing slightly in the forest, and much deeper than normal. My eyes were a pure black with a glowing white purple for irises. The creature in front of me roared this time, a loud and trembling sound that shook the earth under my feet. Standing still, I called for my blade. The bone-white crossed out names glowed a similar purple in their etchings and flew towards my open hand.

Once again the beast looked at my sword and a sort of understanding passed through it. I was about to attack it when the stones on its right hand began trembling and growing outwards. Only moments later a sword of Grimm stone had formed. It was longer than mine as it was scaled for him. It didn't matter though. If I had to cut through them both, then so be it.

With a flurry of motion I was on the creature, hacking and slashing with cuts strong enough to fell great-oaks. It matched me in kind, blocking and countering with the sword that should have broken under my might but held strong. I may have been impressed if I wasn't filled with rage from the pain it had caused me.

We continued to clash. I swing my sword in a deep arc up from the ground, cleaving a small trench in the ground on its way up. A ringing boom echoed as our blades bounced off of each other with a few sparks. The creature's blade was lifted upwards and I acted fast. With a blast of movement I rushed to its side and dug my sword into the ground, latching for a moment.

The catch was enough to start a double spin that cut deeply into and through the creature's achilles tendon. With a small roar it fell to one knee and some of the stone on its body and the spikes began crawling towards the wound. Seconds to spare, but only a single needed.

I vaulted upwards a few feet over the Grimm's back and came crashing downwards, spinning again for momentum. Instead of a slash though, a driving pierce hit the nape of its neck, and bounced off. Stone had crawled over the area of the impact, angling perfectly to deflect my blade to the side. Though the stone shattered from the impact, it did no damage.

I landed roughly on its back and my free hand grasped as deeply as I could into the black fur. Then I grabbed a small patch of the stonework near my hand. A mistake. My hand squished through it like wet clay before it solidified with my hand incarcerated within. Well it wanted me, so it got me.

With as much movement as I could manage, I threw a slash into the opposite shoulder and it dug in slightly. At the same time the creature stood up, its ankle obviously healed. I felt the turning motion as it swiveled its head to look for something. Finally it stopped for a moment and spun 180 degrees around.

Wind was in my hair as the creature began a backwards run. A mere second after I felt a sharp crushing feeling and my ears were filled with the sounds of splintering wood. With a very uncomfortable position I shoved off of the tree, bucking the weight of the beast forwards and onto the ground. While it regained its composure I broke free of the rock prison it had made for me.

The enormous creature dug its hands in and pushed up, and I jumped out of the way. Once on its feet it roared another challenge at me, the sound so powerful it broke nearby branches around it. I was already done playing games, but this time I was done with everything. I gripped my blade with two hands

Pulling more vestiges of my power, I focused it into my blade, honing the edge further and heating it. Then I burst at the giant in front of me. It swung once, the blade burying deep into the ground as I let the strike slide down my own and spun to attack. It had landed in a crouched position when it swung and the mid-section of the creature was at shoulder height.

With a growl of rage I drove the blade deeply into the gut of the creature, smiling as I heard it howl in pain and the fain sizzle of flesh filled my ears. I felt the hand that wasn't holding a sword grope at my back and I charged my own sword, releasing a small burst of ghostly purple flame into its body. I could see the glow of it under the beast's skin for just a moment.

The hand at my back gained a grip and lost it, gained it again. Even while dying the Grimm wanted me dead. With a sick smile I twisted the blade more, hearing the weak groans in the monster's chest. Slowly I slid the blade out and stepped back, burning the blood off with another flash of purple fire.

The creature stood hunched over, hands still in position to grab me. Its head cocked slightly upwards and it made a motion to step at me before falling to one knee and supporting itself with its sword. Rock slowly crawled to the wound, but there would be nothing to heal. I had cauterized the wound when I had stabbed it, but even so there was a great amount of blood dissolving off the ground.

Amazingly though, the beast began to stand. It rose not to its full height, but instead the figure of an old man on his last journey. The granite great sword raised and a slow swipe at me was attempted. I glided back on my heels a foot and let the blade stick into the ground. The creature began to pull it free, but I struck and broke the blade in half.

It looked at the sword in its hand and I saw the stone fracture as it was dropped to the ground like the useless instrument it was. More rock crawled to the hand in which the weapon was held. A glob of rock hardened and the arm reared back. I sighed as the beast was reduced to throwing rocks. With another twirl I sheathed my blade and let my power ebb away from the surface and my glow faded.

The rock was thrown at me and I simply stepped to the side, fully expecting it to bounce into the woods from the point of impact. Instead the rock became a liquid as it touched the ground and flowed towards me before I could react. The thick liquid like so much cement coiled around and encased me from my elbows down and rooted me.

Then the creature rose to its full height, and I realized that I was a fool to believe such a monolithic creature would be weakened so easily by a single stab wound. I began to struggle to break out of my small prison and found I couldn't, at least not with this power. Hurriedly I pulled my energy from my core again. Meanwhile the creature grabbed my sarcophagus and more stone flowed onto it, taking all of the stonework on the body and moving it.

I craned my neck and tensed every muscle in my body trying to break free, but the stone was strengthening faster than I was. In mere moments I my face was covered and my vessel began to struggle for oxygen in the earth. Consciousness became less and less potent in me and my mind began to fade into the void.

 ** _"NO"_**

I released one of my few natural barriers I had placed against my own power. The effect was immediate. Sigils blazed to life in my blade and my pale skin glowed a deeper purple than before. My irises returned to their ghostly spectrum and my strength became immense. I flooded power outwards, welling up like a canister too full.

The coffin the beast had created exploded and the chunks of stone flew through his body like shrapnel, too fast to be reabsorbed. The shockwave of it broke nearby trees and scorched the grass. I was free again, but this time I didn't draw my blade.

 ** _"Fall"_** I commanded, raising my hand towards the creature who was bleeding from several holes with no stone left to recover. An immense gravity settled over it as many sigils wrapped themselves around my outstretched hand. The being kneeled first, then bowed. My respect for it increased as it was still fighting the 12x gravity I had put on it.

The sigils on my hand burned brighter, slightly scorching my skin. A form of flesh and blood was not meant to wield power such as this, but I refused to ascend against a single being. I watched the fight leave the muscles of the creature and it lay spread eagle on the ground.

 ** _More_**

I raised my other hand, a new line of sigils appearing and searing into my flesh. The structure of the Grimm began to break down in the same way as the grass around it did. Trenches appeared in its body like it was being sandblasted, but it was worse. It was _decaying_.

An arm severed, then a leg. The sigils kept burning until all that was left of the creature was a simple pile of decaying fluid and flesh. Only then did I let them die and my power shrink back down. Only then did I replace the barrier that kept my power limited.

My breath hitched for a moment before heaving. This body was exhausted from my efforts and pain signals were shooting off like fireworks. My shoulders burned like fire and my wrists and hands were more than likely branded with the sigils. Every molecule felt torn in some way due to the amount of power I had conducted through it.

Nothing that couldn't heal with a bit of time and effort, I supposed. Then I chuckled lightly. Salem sure knew how to make some powerful creatures, especially when a few humans helped her out with it. If she ever managed to get whatever organization that was led by Darhk then humanity was screwed.

Another chuckle, and then I stopped. I heard more rustling around me. It was possible that my display of power had managed to attack the attention of the Grimm in this forest. I didn't even bother readying my blade, knowing I could beat them off easily without.

"We found a guy out here. According to the maps we're right where the lightshow was coming from." A pause. "Yes sir. Move in." All this was spoke in a hushed voice around me. I couldn't hear whoever was talking to the voice, but I got the obvious meaning. They were here to investigate the recent fights. I guess I had showed up on some sort of radar.

"You know I can hear you." I called out, and the shuffling stopped. "Come out here and I might let you live." I was lying of course, but it never hurt to have some fun.

Surprisingly a single soldier clad in white armor with black highlights and a powerful looking rifle stepper out of the thickly leaved area. " _Let_ us live? I've got half a dozen other men surrounding you with high-powered rifles. I think you best-" He stopped and pressed a piece in his ear. With him being closer I was able to make it out.

 _"Scan his face."_

Shadows.

My body faded to blackness as soon as I comprehended this. I wasn't sure of their technology, but if the order was given then they had the ability. He turned his head twice before moving two fingers in a circle and taking aim at my last position. Six sets of footsteps came with the man as the other men moved in. While I was effectively invisible, it actually wouldn't last long. I could see the beginning light of the sun and it would rise soon.

While I could lower my visibility, it would only work so well in the dead of light.

So I moved, drawing my blade and catching a bullet in my arm. Wait, what?

It stung lightly and I realized I had grossly underestimated their technology. They could see with sound somehow. Not sonar no, but something similar. The reversal of that. They could pick of my sounds and pinpoint my position fast. I guess I would have to be faster.

I rushed forwards, my feet shuffling momentarily on the ground. Two bullets landed there after I had gone. I'm sure each footstep appeared on their devices as well, but none of them could lead me enough to take a shot. The first man however knew where I was going.

"Jax, to you!" "I see it I see it!" He yelled, gripping his gun tighter. He swung the butt of his gun near me and I weaved around it, bashing him with an elbow and then throwing him a few feet upwards with a slash. No blood though. His armor was a good grade, but I could see a definite trench in his chest piece.

While he was still in the air I launched myself and dodged the bullets heading for me. With a little more power in my swing I struck vertically and relieved him of his head. Two distinct thumps hit the ground before I did. My lips curled in a smile as one of them yelled his name in a grievous tone. That smile frowned as two more bullets struck me and more were on their way.

"Melt the bastard!" The friend said and I realized why. A distinct heat was coming from two of the bullets that had hit me. Red dust. The movement was agreed and I felt the peppering flecks of fire hit me from all sides. While it didn't do much it was still enough to annoy me, especially after my troubles with the last creature. Some mindless slaughter was just what I needed to brighten my mood.

With another rush I went after the grieving friend with a deep laugh. First I swiped at his legs with my sword and noted that they were less armored than the chest. Most people only went for the body anyways, right?

Wrong.

He made a very pleasing grunt of pain as he fell to the forest floor and grabbed at his bleeding calf. I kept laughing to myself as I drove the sword through his upper leg and twisted slowly. His screams were even better. Throughout he pain he grabbed at a small pistol in his belt and fired shots at where he guessed my hand was. Even bleeding heavily his aim was true and peppered my knuckles. I twisted harder for his troubles, the edges of my blade tearing out now instead of cutting. In just a few seconds the only thing holding his leg together were a few stray chunks of meat and skin.

"DIE ASSHOLE!" Someone next to me screamed and I felt a jarring impact throw me into a tree. It hurt a bit, but I was more curious at the red embers and electrical sparks stuttering around me. Then I figured out what hit me. The man I first saw, most likely the captain, was holding a slimmed down and shrunken version of the Atlesian Rail-gun, and it packed a punch.

"How'd that taste?" The captain asked. He was now looking dead at me and I tried to figure out how and why, but the buzzing particles around me where annoying. Then it hit me that that was in a way just a tracer and now they could easily tell my position.

"Delicious." I replied in a growling voice. I saw his jaw open and close before he rolled to the side. "Cover me!" And just like that the bullets were on me again. The captain was reloading another cartridge into his rail-gun. The dust on the outside was somewhat depleted and starting to show black spots. About three shots left, I estimated.

Wasting no time I leapt back into action against the remaining four gunmen, the one on the ground would bleed out soon.

While their armor could partially protect against my slashes, being run through was much more focused and damaging. Blood pooled in the etches of my blade and I caught the glimpse of a patch that read 'Peterson'. Then I flung the wriggling body off my blade and at the feet of another gunman.

The soldier took a step back and I bolted at him. The elemental particles were still around me and alerted him to my motions. He raised his gun in a defense of my overhead slash that shattered his weapon. Like a true soldier he brought his hands to bear, one gripping the handle of a combat knife. I cocked my head to him, though he probably couldn't see a movement that refined.

Digging his boots into the ground the soldier took a stab at me with the knife. I stepped back and deftly cut the knife blade in half. "Could use a bit of help here!" He yelled as he threw the blade into the grass and came at me with bare fists.

"Nothing can help you now." I told him as I swung horizontally to his neck. He could see me better than I thought so because he ducked under the strike and delivered two heavy-handed punches against my sternum and one aimed at my face.

His knuckles connected cleanly and pushed my head slightly to the side. Laughing I grabbed his forearm and crushed it in my hand, feeling the ellipse of bones break individually. Then I shuffled to the side and sliced down easily through his arm. He screamed at the site of me holding his bloody, still twitching arm in my hand.

A dull pressure found itself on the small of my back and I turned my head to look at it, dropping the arm. "My orders were to bring you back alive, but I think Ironwood will be satisfied if I carry what's left of you back in a soup can!" The captain pulled the trigger and my world briefly turned to pain. The miniature railgun he was holding was definitely not loaded with a tracer round.

My body flew through a good three trees, but the impact isn't what hurt. The combination of fire, gravity, and lightning dust made for an absolutely crushing hellfire that consumed me for a moment. My sword flew from my hand somewhere in my flight and I didn't care. Maintaining my cover of darkness was key to keeping my identity.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I retained the name 'Ironwood'.

I however found myself _wanting_ them to see me. To see my face. I wove another illusion of a pale and bloody face with split cheeks and jagged teeth. Hollow black eyes would stare into their souls. Slowly I stood up with my shadows falling around me like a thick black liquid. "Now you've gone and done it." I told them in a growling voice deeper than before.

"We were having such a good time as well, but you had to go and make me mad." Rapid footsteps stopped near me and I realized they couldn't hear my ramblings from before. I heard a few gasps and one whimper before the captain spoke again. "I don't know how you're alive, but I'm gonna kill you you sick bastard!" I hung my head back and laughed echoing and crazed laughter into the air.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." I said before I rushed at the commander and stopped a mere foot in front of him. His face contorted in surprise before he got his nerves under control and threw a punch. I caught it and crushed his hand ever-so-slowly, savoring the crunch of each digit under my palm. Then I moved his arm closer and used my other hand to snap his arm downwards.

No, not hyper-extension, but the direction that arms aren't allowed to move.

He screamed deliciously as I pulled him even closer and braced my hands on his shattered elbow joint and began pulling. A deep, vicious ripping crunch signaled itself from deep inside his torso and he screamed louder than ever before. I looked him dead in the eyes. "Watch closely now, this isn't something you see every day."

Then I pulled harder, barely registering the clips of bullets hitting me in the back. That gory tearing sound happened again and the joint pulled farther from its socket in his arm. Only muscle and skin now. The captain was still screaming and crying. I could see his skin stretching like a living rubber.

The captain's screams changed abruptly as his free hand clamped onto the back of my neck and a surge of electricity momentarily halted my movements. The sizzling on my spine stopped after a few seconds and I gave him a look. "An unlocked semblance, why am I not surprised?" I yanked some more and off came the arm. He screamed a final time with blood flying from his throat before he passed out in the shock.

I dropped his arm and gripped his head in both hands and twisted. A few lovely snaps later and I watched the light leave his eyes. Turning around to face the bullets peppering me, I flashed my bloody smile at them. Two uninjured soldier were reloading and another with his arm cut off was using his teeth to replace the cartridge of a pistol.

He would also bleed out soon.

The other two would need to die... Scratch that, one. The second soldier would be my fountain of information as to who ordered this and why. I might as well make a show out of the first one then.

With deliberately slow steps I walked towards him, my sword scraping over pebbles in the soil. His teeth were grit and there was a tear streaming down one side of his face. The name 'Wayne' was engraved on his metal chest plate. He stepped away from me, trying to gain distance. "Stay back!" He yelled while his voice quivered.

I felt a dull thud as the other soldier smashed the butt of his gun into my neck. With my left hand I reached upwards and crushed that end before ripping the mangled mess of metal out of his hands and tossing it hard enough to impale shrapnel into the one-armed man. "Wait your turn." I told him and lashed out with my leg.

His broke at the knee and he dropped with a grunt. I continued on my way towards Wayne while still flashing my smile. "I must say I'm impressed that you haven't run. None of you have." He shook his head and yelled with a broken voice as he pulled his trigger once more.

 _*click, click, click*_

"Oh, a jam. It's not like it would have helped you anyways." He yelled again and grasped the gun by the barrel and swung. I was getting quite tired of this move and batted the gun into pieces mid-swing. A broken squeak came out of his mouth as he looked down at his hands which had held the useless gun. Then his hands dropped to his sides and his figure slouched. He was giving up.

"Oh by all means keep fighting." I ordered and he remained still. "Kill-joy." I muttered to him before I slashed twice fast. His breath hitched both times and he flinched as I removed his strapless helmet. My own grotesque illusionary face was reflected back at me through his blue eyes. "I am an artist." I mumbled.

"Just get it over with already." He said, voice still breaking. "As you wish." I dropped my sword and blasted my open hand upwards through his stomach and into his chest cavity. I felt the slimy feeling of his intestines before the oddly spongey texture of his lungs. My arm had stopped in its momentum now and I slowly forced it deeper.

My sleeve stained red as well as my glove. I would have to wash that off soon.

I could see the pain in his eyes as my hand crawled its way past his lungs, but he only screamed when my fingers brushed the outside of his heart. I respected him for that.

The normally faint beating of his heart was now very apparent as my fingers wrapped around it and between the tangles of valves. "Last chance, are you sure you don't need this?" Only screaming. With a smile on my face I ripped it out, a tide of blood rushing out of severed valves following the tunnel my hand had carved in his body.

The dead man stumbled for just a few moments in so much pain that his mind couldn't even register it. He did not scream but instead let out a few odd squeaks before falling dead onto the forest floor. I nonchalantly tossed his heart back onto his body where it bounced and rolled to a rest by his head. I could see his pupils focus in on it before he truly left this world.

My attentions shifted back to the soldier whose leg I had broken moments earlier. He was now crawling into deeper thicket of the trees and bushes in order to hide from me. Such a futile effort. My steps were painfully casual as I strolled over to the crawling solder. When he noticed my presence he gasped in shock and tried to crawl faster. I smashed his first reaching hand under my boot and crouched down so we could be face to face.

"I'll make you a deal. Answer my questions and I'll make it quick." There wasn't even resolve in his eyes. "W-What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice steady by his own stubbornness to be a man even in death, at least a little bit.

"Who is Ironwood, and where is he?" Without missing a beat he spoke. "General Ironwood is the leader of the Atlesian Army and Headmaster of Atlas Academy. He is actually on his way to Beacon now." He told me these words like a small child spilling his guts after a bit of pressuring. "Really. When is his transport ship supposed to arrive."

"The coming afternoon, about 12 hours from now." He answered. He was too afraid to even risk lying and that made everything easier. "I-Is that all?" He asked hopefully. I nodded and put down my sword. With two hands stained in blood I grabbed his head, my thumbs over his eyes. There was no countdown, no laughter or words, I was true to my word. Two blades summoned themselves in his brain before splintering outwards, tearing apart his brain and killing him instantly.

Now then, if Ironwood was coming Beacon then I might just be able to have some fun with that.. I let my illusions fall after I had taken my sword and walked a good distance from the bodies of the solder. There was no way to tell if any of the cameras or scanners in their helmets were still active.

There were no more Grimm in the immediate area despite the large amount of misery the soldiers must have put off. No more people either. Maybe I had killed most of them, maybe they had. Either way I was alright with it. I had things to do and people to see. The sun was rising now and I had to find a way to repair my clothes and wash the blood off of, well, everything.

I laughed into the approaching sunlight at the state I was in and reveled in the memories of my recent slaughter.

* * *

 **Welp, there goes another dark chapter as well as some more plot on the way. Please make sure to leave a review or PM for the chapter, I live off of those you know.**

 **I'd also like to know whether ya'll would like any questions answered by response to PM or mentioned in the next chapter.**

 **Other than that, have a great day!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Finals week and adjusting to a new schedule has been very annoying and difficult, especially having to catch up because of a multitude of doctor appointments. School's almost over though, and I'm back. Make sure to leave a review or PM with your thoughts. I live off those.**

The trip back to Beacon was relatively easy. I stopped near a fast flowing river and washed the brain, heart, and blood matter off of my clothes and skin. The various pinprick wounds I had recieved along with a few deeper cuts and monumental bruises ached and I used my power to accelerate my healing. The entirety of my upper body was still sore and would be for a few more hours.

My clothing was patched up by weaving a few shadows into it and mixing it with my summoning power. The sigils burned into my hand faded and I made sure that no blood was baked into my blade. These kinds of things were hard to explain, you see.

I encountered no more Grimm and no more soldiers on my treck back. If I had to deal with one more irritation tonight I was going take a few stories off the school. Ozpin might not like that, but I sure would. We could work something out.

I chuckled at the thought of me and the Headmaster diplomatically discussing how many students I could kill and on what days. In the end I would get my way no matter what. He would get the short stick. The world would get the short stick.

My mind managed to become a large amount calmer on the climb upwards on Beacon Cliffs. There really is nothing like a sunrise at this height, I thought. A few rocks snapping off the wall peaked my exhileration just a bit. Adrenaline was still nice to feel.

By the time I had made it up there the sun was, from my view, an inch off the horizon. People would be up soon, so I took a final check of myself before strolling back onto school grounds. A couple early risers were jogging around campus in their efforts to get the day started. One I saw had her eyes closed and her body on autopilot. Somewhere close to my dorm building I heard her yelp as she obviously woke up and fell.

People need coffee...

Today, like a normal human, I walked inside the dormitory and strolled through the halls and stairwells up to my floor. It was honestly a 50/50 chance that Ruby had woken her team up by now. Some days she was an early riser, other days you had to tip the bed over. If she wasn't up yet then that was a good thing. A shower with actual soap would completely alleviate any lingering iron smell.

Ah, fourth floor. The solid wooden doors lined the straight walkways before leaving around corners. The red rims and brass knobs accentuated the color. Ozpin sure cared about image. Image was half the battle after all.

The floors were hardwood covered by a thin cloth, but they still made a deep tapping noise from my have boot soles as I walked. The walls were thick and kept the noise from forming and instead creating a pleasing echo. In no time at all I made my way to our room number and opened the door quietly. To my dismay, only Yang was still asleep, and stirring at that.

"Hey Darren!" Ruby greeted me with a smile on her face. "How'd it goe with your crazy uncle?" She asked. "Well as I could expect. Threw around some conspiracy theories, killed some Grimm, had a drink." She tilted her head at me. "You drink?" I nodded.

"He insists on a compettition everytime we meet." I told her. She nodded in a slightly wary way but said nothing. "So, where's the other two?" I questioned. "Blake is in the shower and Weiss walked down to grab a textbook that Pyrrha borrowed. I'm surprised you didn't see her." She explained.

"Me too." Pyrrha had all but left my mind until this moment. I would have to check her mental state at some point. "Speaking of Pyrrha, what exactly did you do to her? She's been acted weird for a while after your fight and everytime I bring up your name Jaune starts getting angry." I held back a chuckle at the memory.

"Oh I simply went a little overboard when I expected to be fighting the Mistrali champion. I never heard any bad news and expected her to have recovered easily." A door opened next to us.

"A little?" It was annoyed. Blake was standing in the bathroom door with her school uniform on and hair slightly wet. Her bow was off and a glance to the side told me that it was draped over her bedpost. "She was sobbing in terror." She told me, walking closer with her fists tightening.

"In my defense, I _asked_ if fear tactics were allowed, Glynda said yes. "Your _tactics_ almost broke her!" She said, starting to raise her voice. as far as I knew she wasn't good freinds with Pyrrha, so I had no idea why she was getting so angry. "Look, I tried to apologize but she wouldn't have it. Maybe she'll want a rematch at some point and we can talk then." I tried to talk my way out of this.

"Oh I can garuntee you that she does. You haven't been around much, but do you have _any_ idea how much she's been training? Until only recently she's been getting a few nights of sleep a week and spending the rest in the training room. I've _never_ seen someone affected so heavily by a single fight." I was about to retort that those actions were normal in losing a duel, but a loud yawn sounded off next to us.

"What's all the yelling about?" Yang asked, her hair draped messily over her own face and words slurring slightly. "Nothing Yang." She turned to Ruby. "I'll see you at breakfast." Blake grabbed her bow and walked out of the room, giving me a heavy glare as she did so. "Blake, come back!" Ruby tried to yell, but she was already long gone.

"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt whatever just happened, but is there any hot water left?" Yang asked us. Ruby sighed. "Yes Yang. Hurry up though or we'll miss breakfast." The though of missing breakfast apparently terrified the blonde because she sprung out of bed and skipped into the bathroom. Water started rushing a few moments later.

"How long has Blake been pissed at me?" I asked Ruby. She turned to me and slumped down onto the bed behind her. I did the same. "For the past few weeks she's been scowling whenever we bring you up. She's never had an outburst like this though. I honestly have no idea why she's so angry about it. It was just a sparring accident, right?" She asked me.

"Of course. I'd never intentionally try to harm someone mentally, at least not seriously. Is she good freinds with Pyrrha or something?" Ruby shook her head. "Blake is still a bookworm and doesn't talk much to people outside of us. I know she cares about Pyrrha, but I wouldn't call that a freindship. Let alone a good one." I juggled the information around in my head.

"Let's talk about something else, kay?" I nodded my acceptance. "OK. So... Training? Is that good for today? You've been throwing it off alot lately." I pretended to think about my schedule for the day. "Sure. Have you managed to awaken that secondary semblance again since?"

"No." She said dejectedly. "No matter how hard I fight it seems like it's just there on the edge of my reach." I smiled a bit too wickedly because she got a worried look on her face. "I suppose I'll just have to force it out of you again. No needles this time. It'll be a real fight."

"O-Okay. What about Yang and Weiss?" Weiss still hadn't returned which was odd. JNPR's room was on the same floor so it should have been a quick trip. "Perhaps she caught Blake in the hallway and went with her." I proposed.

"No, I meant about training." Ruby explained. "I'll work with Yang to see if I can push her to light the paper and see where that takes us. As for Weiss, I'll test her abilities in using Glyphs before explaining some rudementary Runes later." I did not truly belive that I could get much out of Weiss in training. Both Ruby and Yang had potential to become something great because of the way thier semblances work.

As far as Blake went, skill could only take her so far. I would have to fight her at her best before I made any lasting decisions. The same might go for Weiss, but I already partially knew the extent of the Schnee Semblance from simple research and the consumption of the soul of one of thier higher-ups. Amazing how useful people can be when they are dead.

The bathroom door opened for the final time that morning and Yang stepped out, fully cothed and her hair dried perfectly. One of the things I had learned is that she cared very much about her hair. "We goin' to get breakfast? Weiss just shot me a text to tell us that they're already there." She told us, slipping on her bracelets that were lying on her nightstand.

"Oh, yeah I guess. you two catch up, I've got to get something ready." Ruby said before getting up to dig into the desk. "Ooh, a surprise. We'll meet you there then. Come on Darren." Yang told me. She opened up the door and stepped out. I followed her out and down the stairs into the cafateria. Weiss and Blake were already there when we arrived, seated in front of JNPR.

From the moment I sat down I could almost feel Jaune glaring at me. I hadn't conversed with him much at all in the long time I had been here, but from the intensity that came from it I could infer that he cared very much about Pyrrha. Pyrrha herself looked worse for wear with bags on her eyes, random bruising and small cuts along her arms and face and any other skin that was visible.

What she did _not_ seem however, was broken. That both dissapointed and impressed me. I had thought that even as a prestiged warrior she would be shattered in the mind; especially after the illusions and nightmares I had tortured her with for a few days after our, shall we say, match. Another fight needed to happen. I wanted to test just how strong her resolve was.

A match with Jaune was in order as well, but somehow I think he had the same thoughts. He might even challenge me himself. He didn't look like much, but anger was a poweful tool. It might even be fun. I just hoped he could put up more of a fight than one of the soldiers from last night.

 ***SMASH***

While I was in my own thoughts Ruby had managed to sneak up on the table and smashed down a book that shook every tray and cracked the surface slightly. The top of the white folder had a title crossed out in red marker and a new one written. "Best Day Ever Activities!"

 _'What fresh hell is this?'_ I thought as she adressed us. "Sisters. Friends... Wiess." The heiress mentioned made an offended noise that Ruby ignored. "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream." I sighed and waited for the rest of whatever waste of time was about to be explained.

"This ought to be good." Yang said. She then caught a cherry in her mouth that somone had thrown at her. Ruby continued speaking. "A dream that one day the four of us would come together as a team and have the most fun that anyone has ever had... Ever!" She exclaimed, bouncing in excitement. Weiss was now irritated for a different reason.

"Did you steal my binder?" She asked. "I am not a crook." Ruby responded.

"What do you mean?" Blake asked, her bad mood from earlier seemingly alleviated. "I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" She said.

"I always kick my semester off with a _Yang._ "

...

...

And then I shot myself.

Just kidding. I did contemplate my existence for a second or two before tuning back in to the conversation. Another person also shared a similar position and threw an apple into Yang's face.

"Guys, its been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our semester is going to be gread. But classes start back up tommorow. Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today." She took a deep breath and waited for our response.

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store for us today." Weiss said. Yang whipped what looked like a pear at deadly speeds to someone in front of us. Blake sighed for an unrelated reason.

"I think I might sit this one out." She said. "Sit out or not, I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team." Weiss said, and an air of friendship filled the room. Thankfully the moment was ruined.

"I got it!" A familiar high-pitched voice said before a large cake hit Weiss squarely in the face and stuck. A glance in front of us and I saw Nora pointing at Ren who had his hand over his face.

After that things, shall we say, escalated. There was eggs thrown, sodas exploded, humans launched. It was actually kind of fun. All I know is that I was roped in and in about 30 seconds, ever table was stacked on one side of the cafateria, about fifty of them, and JNPR was standing on them. To this day I have no memory of how they got there that fast.

Ruby was rounding the team and declaring war when I looked back at her. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be, DELICIOUS!" Ruby yelled, slipping into a battle cry that the rest of them followed. I joined in for kicks and we began to gather our weapons. Before any of us could be armed however, a volley of watermelon's descended upon us.

"Yang, turkey!" Ruby ordered and Yang slipped two turkeys over her hands. She wiped out the brunt of the assualt with her newfound 'gauntlets' and Blake vaulted over her. She armed herself with two bread sticks as blades and they charged together. Blake rushed Pyrrha and Jaune at the same time. Yang sent her help by lobbing both her turkey-gloves at Jaune and effectively knocking him out for the moment.

I searched for an acceptable item of food to join in with while keeping tabs on the battle with the corner of my eye. There was a brief struggle between Blake and Pyrrha before they broke apart into close-quarters combat. While it would have normally been a more equally balanced fight, Pyrrha's training seemed to have obviously paid off.

She stayed a step ahead of Blake during the entire confrontation before knocking her down and back at us. Instantly after she assaulted Yang with a trio of bread-spears. The third found its mark and pushed her off the table she had clambered onto.

I took my chance, taking an abnormally large salmon in both hands and charging Pyrrha. Her eyes widened for a good second as she realized I was coming for her. Then she grit her teeth and seet her eyes before taking a defensive stance. I smiled at her efforts before swinging. Just as my 'blade' was about to make contact it was blocked by a blonde-haired face.

Jaune stared up at me, having crouched to reviece the full force of the blow. The fingers on his left hand were wrapped around the curled over part of a tin platter. His right hand held a breadstick. Though it was currently a mock fight I could see the real fire in his eyes as he moved to counter me. With the platter he shoved my blade over and stabbed at me under my left arm.

I blocked his swign and threw my own upwards, whacking across his cheek and painting what would become a decent bruise. While he recoiled I checked around for Pyrrha, but she had left. I heard her throwing more bread upwards to my side and Ruby sliding along tables with a lunch tray in her direction. Somewhere in the room a pipe snapped and was followed by a squelching noise.

That was all of the information I could gather before Jaune was on me again. He swung twice this time, once at me chest and once to sweep my legs. I blocked the first and jumped onto his weapon on the second swing, pinning his hand to the floor. With a surprising maneuver he reached over and smashed a milk carton on the side of my head. My right ear was filled with liquid and my vision blurred.

A moment later I felt his platter bash into my side with the rim and pull back for another attack. I quickly wiped the milk from my eyes and caught the platter in an iron grip. The tin bent and left impressions of where my fingers were, allowing my to rip it out of his hand and leave him weaponless. I slashed wickedly upwards onto the right side of his body and lifted him off the ground by his jaw alone.

He flew back into a table and cracked it with his impact. He seemed out to me, but then his fingers grasped the broken pile of table pieces as he climbed out. I took another moment to figure out what was happening around me. Pyrrha was recovering on the ground, presumable from Ruby. Nora had charged Ruby and Weiss and had apparently knocked Ruby out for a moment.

She held a pipe speared through a watermelon and was currently trying to land a solid hit. Blake and Ren were nowhere to be found.

"Over here!" Jaune yelled at me and a plate whizzed by my still waterlogged ear. More plates were thrown at me and I broke them out of the air with my salmon, taking a step closer with every swing. He kept throwing until I was on him and he was out of plates. On my next swing he put his arms up and was thrown back by the force of the imapct. His aura flickered briefly as he landed next to a broken table.

I saw him reach into the wood before pulling out a sizable table leg and running at me again. In the distance I heard stone collapsing on stone and Ruby screaming about something. I didn't care to figure out exactly what all the screaming was about and I instead focused on Jaune. He used his table leg much like I wielding my salmon.

We traded blows and I found him to be slower fighting like this and at the same time stronger. That was the downfall of wielding a blade primarily two-handed. "Not so tough now, are you?" He spat at me. I chuckled. "This is only a mock fight, or are you being serious?" I asked him. He stepped back for just a second and I saw that information sink in.

He was fighting for real right now. Maybe not a full strength or with a proper weapon, but it certainly wasn't a game to him anymore. He stepped forwards again and stabbed upwards at my chest cavity and I caught the table leg, snapping it with my wrist. There were much louder noises around us now. Hissing explosions and smashing stones.

Jaune swiped what was left of his leg at me like a dagger and I moved my arm behind his next swing. I used his body weight and momentum to simply toss him to the side and give me time to look around again. Nora was without a weapon again, now throwing sodas at Blake. As I looked around I noticed that they were littered everywhere.

Then the cans began to glow black and shake. I created a force rune and vaulted across the room, back to Ruby's position. We watched as Blake got decimated by a horde of cans that threw her into the back wall. I tapped Ruby on the shoulder. "They've played thier trump card. It's your turn." I stated. Instead of making excuses or having doubts, she only nodded.

A familiar spark appeared in her eyes and she took a sprinting stance. Then she was off. A faint red glow appeared around her as she ran, and at first I was dissapointed that she was simply running. Then I saw the cans coming for us reverse directions, caught in the funnel that she was creating. Ruby dived into her run and into a tornado of rose petals. The object she had accumulated did the same.

Cans, food, and members of JNPR alike were sucked into the funnel behind her. As she came to an abrupt stop mere feet from the wall, the air pressure around her collided with it and cracked the dense cement. I'll admit that there is not a sight much more satisfying than watching the members of JNPR get destroyed by a spiraling myriad of objects.

There was little noise in the room and I began to think that it was over until the doors of the carafteria burst open. Glynda Goodwitch walked into the room with a scowl on her face and a faint growl escaping her throat. With a single movement I watced as purple glow overcast ever object in the room. Dozens of tables flew into the air under her command. Silverware placed itself and food threw itself away.

"Children please, do not play with your food." She thought her message had gotten through until Yang crashed through the repaired cieling. Fire breifly flashed out of her hands and she paused just long enough to make the fall non-lethal. With her added defense in aura and the table breaking her fall, she landed only mildly hurt. She was obviously fine enough as she got up laughing, if swaying.

"What was that Yang?" I asked. She looked at me strangely. "What was what?" She responded. "When you fell through the roof again, you did something." She nodded. "Yeah, I was falling to fast so I used my gauntlets to slow... Myself... Down." She looked at her wrists and noticed a distinct lack of extended gauntlets. In fact, they were only half extended.

"It looks like your gauntlets are jammed Yang." I said, my smile growing just a bit. "Then how did I...?" She pointed at the hole in the cieling and her eyes lit up. "You made fire. That means we can continue." She smiled very brightly and pumped her fist into the air. "Alright!" She screamed and a small flash of flame sprouted from her knuckles.

She yelped in surprise and I widened my eyes. The only theory I had at the moment was that she had unconciously broken through the barrier that had kept her from being able to perform these feats before. This made my job harder and easier. I wouldn't have to work her aura up to using it, but I would have to teach her control over it. Yay me.

I started making plans for the training that I would do for the both of them and the questions I would have to answer for Blake and Weiss.


	15. Chapter 15

Me and RWBY left the cafeteria while they laughed and I grinned to seem in place. The grin was only partially faked as I had finally had some success with Yang's power and gotten a good feel for Jaune. I hoped he was going to challenge me soon, but right now I was heading towards the simulation room once again.

It was a good walk from the cafeteria to the training hall and that gave the rest of the team time to ask me some questions. Blake stayed mostly silent to me but at least seemed no longer pissed. She must have seen my short confrontation with Pyrrha and Jaune and how I let myself be strayed to fight Jaune and not Pyrrha.

I decided to let her be wary of me. I had three people out of four in this team who believed me to be their friend. The deeper I could make that trust go, the better. She did however ask me one question. "So how long has Ruby been able to pull off that maneuver?" She asked.

I was going to answer, but Ruby spoke ahead of me. "I've known I could do it for a few weeks now, but I've only just been able to activate it when I choose to. I'm still not entirely sure how I do it either." She answered plainly. That's what we were training to figure out though.

"So will you be training with us?" She asked Blake, but also looked to Weiss. Blake shook her head and Ruby pouted. "Not right now, but I'd like you to explain to me some of the Runes later, if you would." Weiss asked. I nodded before looking at Blake.

"Why not?" I feigned interest in her joining us. "I'll wait and see the results before I decide if your 'specialized' training is worth it." She replied, some of the edge back in her voice from earlier. This edge I figured was from simple distrust contradicted with obvious results.

"Alright. You'll see eventually just how strong they can get, and then you'll be playing catch-up." I told her. She grinned in a way that I couldn't quite place before turning down a hall with Weiss and waving goodbye behind her. "Have fun." She said sarcastically. I might have asked where she was going if it mattered. We were almost at the training room though, and it was time for some fun.

Once again there were a few people sparring in the room before us. Nothing serious, just running through some new tactics and team moves. I heard quite a few name call-outs before we got to the simulation room. I repeated the command as last time and the three of us stepped onto the hot rocky plains once again.

Ruby and Yang slipped behind a rock to change into training clothes while I readied a strategy and my weapons. Yang tapped on my shoulder to tell me that they were ready. "So, what are we doing this time?" She asked.

"Pretty much the same as last time, but I won't be stopping until either you land three hits or you're both down." I could see some apprehension in their eyes as they remembered how hard it was to land even a single hit on me. The gears turned in Ruby's head as she thought about this.

"Alright. Yang, you ready?" She asked her sister. Yang responded by hopping into a fighting stance, her wrists bare due to her weapons being jammed and the stipulations of our bout. I spread my arms at my side as they rushed at me together. I could see fierceness and determination in Ruby's eyes, but Yang's only held twisted sense of exhilaration. Hers were already glowing a dull red. She must have realized I was on a level above her own and she would have to go all out the second the fight started.

I sidestepped around Ruby's first lunge and met Yang's punch with my left forearm. She threw another but I knocked it away and delivered a twisting gut punch that bent her at the waist. I jumped and drop-kicked her and she got launched a few feet away. I myself carried over into a long backflip that landed directly behind Ruby.

With a somewhat startling speed she swiped behind her. She wasn't using her new power yet, but that swing was faster than any of hers before. I had a few theories about this, but there was nothing I could make accusations on without further examination. So I ducked the blow and punched in her side twice. She grunted in pain on each strike. She brought her hands up and tried to smash down on my head from my crouched position.

I caught her hands and swung her around my left and into Yang. The rushing blonde caught her sister by the ankle to stop her and got Ruby on her feet. Back to where we started it seemed. The two of them looked at each other before nodding and adjusting their stance. "Just what do you have planned for me?" I mockingly asked.

"Come and find out." Yang said with a cocky voice. Impressive enough considering she got handed to last time we fought. I decided to oblige her and took a powerful lunge at them with both fists raised. Yang's right and Ruby's left hand shot up to block my attacks. I barely saw what was coming and pushed off of their raised arms as Ruby's right and Yang's left raised to punch my midsection. I landed a foot away from the team-attack.

The two of them advanced, each of their legs taking only one step to close the distance. A dissonating rhythm of punches fell upon me and I was forced to block them. Normally when a person attacks, they have a set pattern. The alternating forms, fighting styles, and rhythm of their non-correlating attacks made for something impossible to read and I blocked only by reflex each time.

In my current speed they were leaving almost no openings. While I might actually be able to keep this up forever, it was boring to do so. I made my own opening, increasing my speed somewhat I dropped below their punches and spun on my hands to sweep their legs. Ruby jumped over but Yang got caught by it and was sent tumbling to the ground.

A flailing hand caught the back of Ruby's hood and pulled her back as it started to put pressure on her throat. Her hands shot up and gripped the fabric so she wouldn't choke. Still on the ground, I swung around and swept again. With Ruby distracted she also fell to the ground next to her sister. Finally I conjured a Force rune in front of them.

The red and yellow sisters were launched across the hard rocks and gained a variety of scrapes before stopping. Yang was the first to get up as she was the best at recovering from blows. After all, that was her semblance. And her semblance was very activated if her blazing hair and glowing red eyes was anything to go by. Ruby was up next and had a small cut on her shoulder from a sharp rock. Yang glanced at it before locking eyes with me once again.

"Well come on then. Let's see some flames." I taunted, fanning her anger. She took off in my direction and we locked in combat once more. Disappointingly there was no fire around her other than her hair. Yang still hadn't started using her fire despite doing so accidentally not so long ago in the cafeteria. Did she forget how? Maybe she was nervous.

We fought. She threw heavy hooks that I slipped through, delivering painful and irritating punches to the sides of her face and head. It was after about thirty seconds of this that I realized she was holding back. Not much, only about 15%. Somewhere in that 15 percent however was her fire. I guess I would have to keep pushing. I like pushing.

"Stop holding back." I ordered as I slipped through another barrage and punched the tip of her nose. I neglected to hit hard enough to break it, but her eyes still immediately started to water and she cried out from the sharp pain.

"Agh! What the hell!?" She yelled at me. I shrugged with my most irritating smile and she charged me again. This time her punches were harder and just a bit faster. Not enough though, and I sought to tell her. "Why are you still holding back?" I asked. She swung again and Ruby began to join in. Their attacks were nor correlated due to the fact that Ruby had to distance herself from Yang's hair.

"I'm not!" She yelled, releasing a kick at my head. I blocked with both arms and grabbed Ruby's fist from my side, twisting it. She cried out and dropped to her knees. "Alright. I played nice, but it seems I'll have to push you as well." I twisted just a bit more and Ruby yelled again.

"Stop!" She yelled, not wanting to attack me for fear that I might twist further. I shook my head. "I'll stop when you can make me. Until then..." I twisted another centimeter and a Ruby shut her eyes from the pain. Her body contorted to try and take the pressure off. I let go of her arm and lashed out with my foot. She sprawled forwards a few feet in the rock before catching herself. She favored her right arm for the moment.

With Ruby out of my grasp, Yang charged at me. I elevated my power slightly to put me above both of them. My hand caught both of her fists before I spread her arms apart and head-butted her. She stumbled backwards while I calmly took a step towards Ruby. She was up on her feet and ready for me. "And you. You had no trouble activating your ability in the cafeteria, so what's going on now. Afraid to hurt me?"

She didn't respond and instead kicked at my ribs. I pushed her leg away with little reaction and took another step forward. She threw a few punches and I slipped behind her. A faint after-image appeared behind my body as I punched her twice in the spine before kicking her solidly across a good amount of the terrain. I strolled towards her position once again, but Yang stopped me.

"No!" She told me, and tried hammering hits into my stomach. I put my guard low and blocked them before upper-cutting her. She grabbed her jaw in pain and I hammered the side of her neck hard enough to throw her onto the ground and stepped over her. Ruby was back on her feet in front of me and holding the side I kicked with one hand. She looked angry sure, but not enough.

She didn't attack me this time, finding out that now would be a good time to go on the defensive. It didn't help her much. Without the muscle that her sister had my blows were too strong to be effectively blocked and a few large bruises were forming on her arms and face. I could feel that her aura was becoming low. I threw another punch and her arms shot up to block them.

I pushed her arms away and punched her dead in the mouth. She recoiled in obvious pain and a line blood started dripping out of her mouth as she tried to catch her breath. To Ruby's credit, she still wanted to fight. She hadn't so much as mentioned that I was going to far or anything about giving up. Not that I would have let her.

"Pathetic." I said under my breath and began to advance again. My fist pulled back and Ruby weakly raised her arms. Just as my arm began to move forwards I felt a hot pressure on my upper arm. Yang's hand was glowing a bright yellow on my arm as she pulled me back to face her.

"Enough." She said. It was quiet, but the edge in her voice screamed danger. I smiled briefly before a flashing punch landed squarely in my cheek and sent me airborne. In a surprised state I unsteadily righted myself in the air and landed shakily on my feet. The taste of iron filled my mouth. She must have hit hard enough that my cheek was cut on the inside by my teeth.

"That's one." I simply said before I ran at her. My speed lowered but I kept the strength. I threw the first punch and she blocked it. Embers coated her movements similar to the petals that coated Ruby when she activated that layer of her semblance. As each of my fists contacted her arms, which did not give whatsoever, sparks flew off her skin.

In a surprising move she countered me and threw me back with two small blasts from her open hands. It was at this distance that I got a good look at her eyes. What I saw definitely surprised me. Her normally red irises had turned a light shade of blue. Blue streaks also flickered through her hair every now and contradicted everything I knew about how semblances and eye color worked. They should at least be a shade of the color of her aura.

"That's interesting." I said.

"Shut up." She told me coolly. I could hear an ocean on controlled anger behind those words. She threw her hands behind her and launched herself on two smaller explosions. Yang landed directly in front of me with two hammering blows from above. As I blocked them there was a loud banging noise as fire exploded out to the sides from the point of contact.

With a bit of muscle I threw her arms off of my own and moved to counter her. She used the momentum from my push to move into an avoiding backflip and kept the pressure on after my punch missed. We clashed again for more than two blows and I realized that her form had become so much more refined. Anger normally made you sloppy, but this time the only thing it was doing was fueling her.

I ducked a punch and tried a chop at her leg. She moved her knee up and stamped by hand to the ground. A hammering strike hit my temple before I could react and I rolled a few times to the side. A very brief moment of dizziness came at me before I cleared up. "Alright. Gloves are off." I said, and I unshackled the speed I was holding back and boosted my strength just a bit more.

"Ruby, you heard the man. Gloves off." I looked over to Ruby who wiped the blood off her mouth and smiled. Her eyes began to glow and her skin took on a red light. Then I realized that I should never underestimate the intelligence of those two. When they were changing behind the rock they must have planned for Ruby to hold back until I had pushed whatever I could out of Yang.

"I'm impressed. You pulled a fast one on me. I guess I'll have to repay you in kind." I told them. I pushed my power upwards as well and my form began to blur around the edges. Pebbles near my feet trembled ever so slightly before I stopped, satisfied with my boost. Yang was my first target and I sought to overwhelm her. With fire in my legs I barreled at her with my arms raised in front of me.

Yang's expression did not change as she threw punches at my oncoming form. Belts of fire flew from her knuckles and I wove in between them. Once I made my way to her I slammed both her arms to the side and flip-kicked her in the jaw, landing and charging forwards again. Her hands were up again and caught both my fists in a vice grip.

A test of strength ensued and despite my boost, we were even. The ground cracked slightly as pebbles ground to dust underneath the soles of our shoes. There was a pattering noise to my right side and I quickly gave with that arm. Yang flew forward in that direction as I used the momentum to spin her into Ruby's path.

With her increased reaction time Ruby was able to weave around the form of her sister and prepare an overhead chop for me. With Yang still vice-gripped to my hands all I could do was shift to the side. She missed and I lashed out with one of my feet. She caught the treads of my boot deep in her stomach and stumbled back. With her out of the picture for a moment or two I turned my attention back to Yang.

I planted one of my feet heavily on hers and head-butted her. Hard. She recoiled, but kept her grip. I kept slamming my head into hers as she recoiled bit by bit. She was unable to move due to my foot keeping her in place and her own grip not allowing her to dodge much. After for slams she relented and let go of my hands. Instantly I double-haymakered her shoulders and sent her backwards.

Ruby clashed with me a moment later. She had gotten faster than the time and I found myself having a bit of trouble keeping up. Her silver eyes kept up their glow and the rapid flurry of movements she was making produced shrouding petals around us. So many in fact that I was almost blindsided by the burning drop-punch that Yang had meant for me.

I broke the clash and jumped back as Yang slammed into the ground in my position and rock scorched in a circle around her fist that was embedded an inch into the stone. Ruby's form zipped around her as Yang stood up. I was forced onto the defensive as she threw punch after kick after knee in my direction. Then suddenly it stopped and Yang dashed in.

I was prepared for a blow that never fell as she slipped around me. For all the speed in the world, it will still mean nothing if you are already moving in the wrong direction. My arms were up and that helped her. She slipped her arms undermine and over my head. A Full-Nelson. Damn it.

"Ruby, Brutalize!" I wasn't sure what the word 'Brutalize' had in store for me but I knew it was bad. I tried to struggle out but unless I elevated myself a lot, it would be fruitless. Breaking out of a Full-Nelson is almost impossible, especially when the holder kicks your legs away to get rid of any leverage you might have had. Basically I would have to take what was about to happen.

Ruby sighed and I figured that this must not be her favorite attack. My assumption was that she was simply too light-hearted for something that is akin to a two-person gang-beating. She sprinted up to me and stopped directly in front of me before delivering a hammering blow to my stomach. It didn't stop there. A rain of punches with white speckles from barely forming pressure cones peppered my body and face.

I didn't fell much of it at first, but after the 15th blow I was in pain and annoyed. "Enough of this!" I yelled. I turned my hands behind me as far as I could force them and at Yang's face. To Force runes intertwined with Freeze runes blasted a gale force temperature of -10 degrees at her head. There was a loud hiss of steam as she screamed in shock and let me go.

Ruby tried to fight me back, forgetting that I had just lost for the second time. Despite my current annoyance, I could appreciate two things. One, that she had the guts to keep smashing me after I had lost. It showed a bit of darkness in her that would be good to make grow. Also the fact that she fought this hard against something that she knew she couldn't beat.

The speed I had shown her that night was impossible for her to attain at this point. Yet she and Yang still fought both battles with me like they couldn't lose. There was a certain respect to give for that. That's the reason that I simply caught her wrists and prevented her from fighting me anymore. "It's over." I told her calmly and she stopped struggling.

In a few moments her red glow faded and her silver eyes dimmed to normal. I waited for her to pass out again but she instead stayed on her feet. If swaying. I heard Yang walking up behind me. When I turned around I was greeted by lilac eyes instead of blue or even red. What surprised me was that aside from some light streaks of frostbite on her cheeks, there wasn't a scratch on her.

"How's that for power?" She said cockily. The anger in her voice was gone and she seemed back to her normal self. "You're not going to pass out, are you?" I asked, though it was more of a comment. Yang shook her head and shrugged. "I feel great, even if a little drained." I nodded in thought before pointing at her pocket.

"Check your aura." I told her. She showed me the bar on her scroll that read 40%. Ruby's was 10%, explaining her normal fatigue. I could bet you that it read somewhere around 2% last time.

I addressed the lack of wounds on Yang's body and she shrugged. "Maybe I just had so much aura coursing through me that I healed as we fought." She proposed. I didn't think it was that simple, but I agreed. She seemed happy with her own answer to things and I let her be. She collected her school outfit in her arms as well as Ruby's and I ended the simulation.

"Let's head out." Yang said cheerily. The lines of frostbite on her face were already fading. Ruby stumbled next to us and I opened the door. Standing directly at the entrance was a familiar blonde hair and blue eyes. Jaune was in front of us in full combat gear. "Hey Jaune." Ruby greeted him. "What are you doing here? I've never seen you use the Simulation Room before."

"Hey Ruby. I was just here to have a few words with Darren." 'Words' carried an entirely different connotation than they were meant to, and Ruby could hear that. "Well uh, we just got done training with him so-" I cut Yang off.

"No no. I like 'talking'." I said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word 'talking. "Why don't you two head back to the room and clean up. I'll be there soon. This won't take long." I said. Jaune's eyes blazed for a quick second until her got control of himself.

"Alright. Go easy on each other." Ruby said and let herself be led off by Yang. Jaune walked forward at me and pushed me back behind the doorway. I let him push me. Giving him a sense of power before crushing him would make it more impactful. And yes, I intended to crush him.

Jaune closed the door behind him and shoved me harder. I pretended to stumble into the center of the room. "So, what's your battlefield? Mountains, forests, frozen lake?" I asked mockingly.

"Vacuan Rock Flats, Mid-day." He yelled out, neglecting to use the dials. Around us the room changed and a hard rock rose under my feet. Most of it was a dark brown with flecks of black. It had been smoothed over like river rocks. A few large spires rose around us before the environment settled. Jaune made to unsheathe his sword before I stopped him.

"Mind tossing me that?" I asked, pointing to my sword and sheathe, the strap of which had gotten caught by a rising spire. He huffed and grabbed the blade by its handle. Ruby may handle a heavier weapon than Jaune, but he was stockier. Handling the weight of it well, he threw my sword at my feet. I calmly picked it up, unsheathing the blade and tossing the cover to the side.

"So, any complaints? You must have some reason for challenging me." I questioned him. He pulled free Crocea Mors and unfolded his shield. I was reminded of the impenetrable armor Crocea Armis, and how strong he might be if he possessed it. The thought fancied me, and I crafted an idea of how to anonymously gift it to him as my plan came together and the judgement day of this school neared.

"You already know what you did to Pyrrha. I'm gonna make you pay for that." Jaune made a speedy rush up to me, shoes clunking across the rock face. His sword rose and came at me from my side. With a simple two-handed move I blocked it and threw him back. He rose a feet off the ground and traveled a few further. Surprisingly he kept his footing.

"So you think you can do a better job than the Mistrali champion? Be my guest." I let my guard down and he rushed me again in frustration. On his first slash I shuffled just out of reach and deflected the second with my arm, hitting only the flat of the razor sharp sword. His technique had improved since Initiation Day.

I flicked my blade upwards in a mediocre attack, changing the orientation of the blade little and mostly just moving it. A couple sparks flew as it skitted off his Crocea Mors' edge. In a sudden motion I spun around and slashed sideways at the imposing teenager. He had brought his shield up in time and deflected the strike upwards.

The boy made to run me through and I stepped to the side, slashing at his unguarded side. He moved his shoulder plate upwards to block what could have become a semi-deep cut on the meeting of his neck and shoulder. He hopped with the force of the heavy blade and rolled into a stabbing motion at my center-mass. I pushed the strike away with my left hand and spun into a backhanded slash that caught the tip of his cheekbone. The clipping of bone jarred him for a second and his head slumped on his neck.

A drop of his blood hit the ground and I felt the air change slightly. When he looked up at me his eyes were harder. He had donned a grim and angered smile. "Enough games." He told me. Then he took two quick slashes at me. I blocked them and noted the bit of air pressure around them and that the wind off of each strike ruffled my clothes slightly.

He stepped back and thrust at me with both hands on the handle of his blade. I knocked it to his left side and he followed the motion. He twirled with it and jumped, bearing down with a near horizontal stab. I put my own weapon upwards and stopped it. His sword slid down the edge of mine with another spattering of sparks. As Jaune landed he bashed his armored shoulder into my chest and lifted me off the ground.

In the moment I was in the air he slashed at me once again. I used a heavy strike to parry him away and move me back onto the ground. He was pushed back a small distance by my attack and began to run at me with Crocea Mors and his shield at his side. I stabbed towards Jaune's foolishly exposed chest and his knees buckled.

My blade would have pierced his eye if he had not quickly brought his shield up and pushed it away. He slid under the stab and planted his right foot on my left. From the corner of my eye I saw Jaune push off the ground with his shield arm and rise behind me. As he did so he also struck towards my back. I kicked in opposite directions with my feet and sent myself into a fast spin. My sword banged his out of the way on my first rotation and on the second I struck him in the heavily in the chest. A shallow scratch appeared in his chest plate.

"What training have you been doing?" I asked, slightly impressed with the elite movements and attacks he had been using. On his first day here he seemed incompetent. This was leaps and bounds in skill that people normally couldn't make. Jaune didn't answer me. He instead jumped high at me, yelling, and brought his sword down with both hands.

I raised mine and intercepted the blow, and then a sharp pain spread across my cheek and eye. Incredibly confused about what happened and having to close one eye due to the sudden stinging and separating feeling, Jaune got a clean strike on my blinded side. At the site of impact and further I felt a long cut open on my side. Quickly I raised my power into a shield around me and launched myself to put distance between us.

My focus centered on my eye and I could feel the cornea begin to mend along with the cut on my eyelid. A warm and wet feeling dripped from both my face and side. "What's wrong? That surprise you?" Jaune asked.

I focused on him and saw the air part away from his blade and head to me. I raised my blade parallel to his strike and heard a sharp _**ping**_ on the metal. A small cut opened on my knuckles where I gripped the handle. The answer of _what_ he was doing became clear, but _how_ he was doing it was more confusing. It took an immense amount of aura to extend force away from your attacks further than an inch or two. More aura than normal people have.

"Got a lot of aura, don't you?" I asked him. He smirked.

"Yep. Now hold still." With a yell Jaune unleashed a flurry of cuts at me. From his distance, judging the angle was nearly impossible to do for more than a strike or two at a time. Shallow slashes opened up on my extremities as the aura based attack slipped through mine. The pain was getting more than annoying and once I felt a square of cut away skin begin to move off my muscle, I stopped this.

Surging my power a great deal higher than I was using, I accelerated my healing. Cuts turned into scabs and began to fade. Then I raised my own sword and slashed in his direction. It was like a horse kick to the chest for him and he gawked at me. "See, two can play that game."

I sent another one, the tip of my blade clipping the floor a second prior to one of the boy's legs being blown out from under him. "I commend you for being able to pull something like that, especially on me." I had begun pacing at him and when he tried to rise I kicked him hard in his unarmored stomach. He slashed at me through the pain and a cut appeared on my forehead. It dripped blood for a few seconds before closing.

"But, you're out of your weight class here." I kicked one of Jaune's arms out from under him and stamped hard onto his back. He made a hacking noise as I pressed harder, grinding the heel of my boot into him. "You did do better than Pyrrha though, which surprises me considering her titles." At the mention of Pyrrha's name he yelled.

"Bastard!" He swung at an odd angle and managed to clip my achilles tendon while his blade was cloaked in piercing aura. While not severed, my foot became effectively useless for a few seconds. I fell onto a knee and he stood up fast. I made to raise my arms but he had gotten his punch in faster than I had expected from him after weakening.

The tip of his sword appeared under my throat and a small line of blood trickled from the pin-prick. "Don't you go near Pyrrha again, you hear me?" He ordered. I let my anger out and stared up at him as one hand gripped the edge of his blade. It bled but I showed no feeling as I slowly stood up.

"I don't take kindly to people telling me what to do." I began to put pressure on the blade towards him and his wrists rose with it, unable to fight my strength. My hand stopped being cut as I pushed his aura from the metal with my influence. I was a foot away from Jaune when he pulled the sword down and out of my grasp, it having become slick from blood.

He stabbed with all his might at my chin and I stepped to the left a few inches. My hand impacted his neck with a lot of force and he fell to the ground instantly. Jaune lay there grabbing at his neck as he tried to deal with the pain. I grasped the front of his neck from under him and picked him off the rocks. He was held at arm's reach.

"Congratulations, you've pissed me off." I told him, and slammed him into the rocks hard enough to leave an impression of his shape. Whatever aura he had left collapsed and dissapted. He groaned weakly as I let go of his throat. "Maybe you'll think twice before doing it again." I said.

I began to walk away and mended both my clothes and my skin with shadows caused by the spires. "End simulation." I ordered into the air. The terrain faded and the door to leave appeared before me. Just as I was about to open it, I heard Jaune's weak voice.

"I might not be as strong as you, but I will be. I promise you that." I chuckled.

"Good luck." I wished him, and left Jaune lying on the floor.

 **Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I do plan on getting back to the plot eventually. This was sort of plot, but Darren still wasn't affecting it yet. You'll see some effects on the next one, I promise.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey, uh, sorry. Aunt's in the hospital and just a bunch of other crap in life. Chapter's here though, more coming. Because of me not traveling for vacation, you can probably expect a 1-2 week gap in chapters until for as long as the story continues. At the rate it's going now, I may not even be done by the time real RWBY starts up. I need to start setting shit in motion.**

 **As always, enjoy the chapter and PM or review anything you have to say.**

I returned to the dorm room a few minutes after beating Jaune. After giving myself a final once-over for wounds or rips in my clothing, I stepped through the door. Weiss was sitting at the desk and Blake was on her bunk reading. Neither of them gave me too much more than a passing glance. Ruby and Yang jumped up to greet me.

"How'd it go against Jaune, I hear he's been getting a lot better?" Ruby asked me.

"He has some very unique tactics, and he has shown great improvement since the semester started." Yang clapped me on the shoulder. "Well, there's not a scratch on him, so I guess he won pretty easily. Figures, huh?" She laughed. I shook my head.

"Surprisingly, he got a good many shots in, I just healed with aura." I told them. Ruby cocked her head. "That quick?" I nodded to her.

"Well whatever the case, I hope you're ready for a night on the town." Now it was my turn to question her. She was quick to remind me of my promise to go to a team dinner at some point.

"So take off your sword and let's head out. I know this great club. The owner's a good guy, even if he's a bit of a wimp." Yang told me. A wild smile was curling at the edge of her mouth and I noticed that her normal attire had been replaced by a slightly more vibrant set.

"Alright." I said, resigning myself to the evening. "Are Weiss and Blake coming?" I asked. Ruby nodded. On que, the black and white clad members of the team stood from their positions.

I took more keenly to the small details. Weiss' usual silver hair ornament had been switched for one with a few rubies. Blake had donned a small black necklace and Ruby had put on a touch of eyeliner and had a rose pin on her shoulder.

Despite the displeasing idea of spending a night out at a club, I did rationalize that any club an adrenaline junky like Yang enjoyed must be good. Maybe I could piss off the bouncers for a laugh and drink a few people under the table. Hopefully they had a few poker or pool tables.

"Off we go then." I said, opening the door. The rest of them followed me out of the building. From the front doors of Beacon Academy it was a short walk to the Bullhead launching ground. It was an active night as many of the students intended to enjoy their time on the last of their brake. Despite the crowd though, I spotted something disconcerting.

A few humanoid droids that had wheels for feet and a single lenses for faces we rolling around and scanning people. That could be normal if it wasn't for the fact that they all had the Atlas insignia on them. The black rock and ring stood out on the droids' white armor plating. My mind flew back to the soldiers that I had massacred. Losing a squad (though more likely a valuable piece of tech like that Railgun) would have called reason to look for the person responsible.

As we prepared to board the ship, a single droid came wheeling over and stopped in front of me, looking down from the foot it had on me. A flat white beam of light scanned from the top of my head to my boots and back again. The lights behind the lenses flittered before a mechanical voice droned out a response. " **64% match. Cataloged.** "

"Match for what?" Blake asked and I shrugged my shoulders. I knew exactly what it was matching me to though. The grotesque form that I had taken to terrify the last of the soldiers must have been caught by some hidden camera on their suit. As long as it didn't label me a Person of Interest, that was fine by me.

" **Information classified. Clearance requirements not met.** " The machine droned out in response to Blake's questions. The machine continued to stare at me for a few seconds, probably making the rest my team uncomfortable.

"Can... We leave?" Ruby asked aloud. I turned around and slowly walked into the Bullhead platform that had extended to us. The machine's 'eye' followed my movement, but it made no move to stop me. "I assume so." I said.

Yang and the rest boarded the ship and took a seat. I stayed standing and gripped one of the support bars on the ceiling. Everyone was silent as the bullhead's engines roared and took off. After they quieted and found their rhythm, Ruby spoke. "Does anyone know what that thing was? It creeped me out."

"It's PoI-Bot. Whenever a major crime goes off in an area, usually a murder of some sort, those are deployed into populated areas to compare and contrast people that have similar profiles to any footage caught of the person who committed the crimes, labeling the highest match a Person of Interest." Weiss told us. Everyone was silent once more.

"Who's the closest match?" Ruby asked after a time. Weiss sighed.

"From how long it lingered on him, it seems like Darren is the closest match." Yang's eyes widened and Ruby looked worried. Blake didn't have much of a reaction. I decided to clear the air with a general statement.

"Criminals wear black to hide at night, and you have to be somewhat large to overpower someone. It must have just caught my clothes and body size." I said. Ruby's worry seemed to ease a bit. It seemed she was concerned that I might be wrongly labeled and taken away. How kind.

"Well, let's not think on it too much. We're out to have fun and besides, we're five hunters-in-training. It's not like anyone could get the best of us all, especially now that Ruby's been training in hand-to-hand." That seemed to cheer the mood in the aircraft. Ruby smiled and Weiss sat up a little more. Blake remained as neutral as before.

"Yeah. Let's have some fun and let the police do their thing. With those droids helping them, they'll catch the person in no time." Ruby said. I nodded my fake agreements and turned to look out the window. There was still a good distinct of woods before we would be over the city. At this point there were only lights on the horizon.

The rest of the ride was filled with small talk that I allowed myself to be roped into. Simple questions. Family, friends, goals. The usual conversation of teenagers. The suspicion of murder was forgotten, and good riddance to it. I made a mental note to back off on killing people for a bit. Tensions were getting high and a few too many eyes were looking around for my liking.

Destruction was fun, but deceiving people for extended periods was the icing on the cake. I liked my icing. Maybe if Atlas would stop trying to pick fights with me it would be easier for the both of us. Maybe Atlas Academy could be my next target after Beacon.

The engines on the Bullhead quieted further than the droning hum of flight and I became slightly lighter on my feet. We were descending into downtown Vale. Time had passed a bit quicker than I had expected. The far off lights were now surrounding us from one side. The floor jarred as we touched down and a voice on the loud-speaker told us to get off.

"I always did love Vale at night, even in the pictures." Weiss said as we were walking. Yang chuckled a bit. "Well, the place we're going isn't as flashy and gorgeous as here, but the real fun is on the inside." Weiss cocked her head. The aspect of club districts and slums were foreign to her.

"Wait, is this that club you basically blew up?" Ruby asked in a judging voice. Yang held her hands up. "Only part of it!" She defended.

"Only most of it. How am I going to go in there anyways? 16 years old here." Ruby complained, waving her arms. Yang chuckled some more before donning a tricking smile.

"Let's just say we've come to an 'agreement'. You'll be fine." She reassured Ruby.

"By 'agreement', you mean that he serves you and your friends and you don't blow up his establishment. Blake said, a thin smile on her lips. I chuckled as she was put on the spot. She laughed nervously.

"Ehh, basically." She replied. Weiss mad a judgmental noise and Yang looked back at her. "Hey Ice Queen, don't judge my methods if they work." She told Weiss.

"I didn't say _anything_." Weiss said tauntingly.

"Yeah yeah, you won't be complaining when you've got a free drink in your hand." Yang told her. Weiss put her hands on her hips.

" _I_ don't drink." She complained. "I'm surprised you do."

"It's because you're no fun." I answered her. She made an indignant 'hmph' noise and crossed her arms. Yang chuckled some more and I got the image of a drunken Weiss stumbling around. She was probably an angry drunk if I had to guess.

"What about you Ruby. You couldn't possibly drink either." Ruby twirled her thumbs together. "Weeelll..." She started.

"Oh come on! You as well?" She complained. Ruby jumped away. "All I did was take a drink from Qrow's flask once... Ok, twice." She defended. I made a note to ask who Qrow was.

"So were they both on accident?" I asked, wanting to hear this story. She shook her head.

"N-No. Neither of them actually. The first time I was just tasting it and the second time was because I spit the first mouthful out. I swallowed that one. It burned." She told us. Yang started cackling and turned around to walk backwards so she could tell us the rest.

"I remember that one. You were only 10 and Qrow had asked why you were stumbling around the house and walking into walls. Once he found out he couldn't stop laughing either." Yang laughed some more and Ruby turned red-faced as she tried to get her sister to stop talking.

"You fell asleep in the dog bowl!" Yang got out between laughs. Blake laughed and Weiss held a hand over her mouth to suppress her chuckles. Ruby's face only turned redder in the cool night air. Despite her embarrassment though, she was smiling. Even in the center of the joke, she found humor in it. The concept of mortal humility was strange.

A few more stories were told, though none as humorous as the first. As they talked and I mostly listened, our surroundings slowly changed from a proper city to smaller stooped buildings. Well-made signs with slogans faded into neon names and changing symbols of the establishment. Well set concrete became dirty brick and more street lamps were smashed out.

None of the members had noticed the change until Yang announced, "We're here.". The rest of us stopped and gazed upon the circular building with an assorted glass and stone dome about five feet inwards of the original roof. Small lights shined out of the panes and music echoed from inside, heavily muffled by the structure. A flashing 'Junior's Club' sign stood out.

"This is it?" Weiss asked indignantly.

"Yep. I know it isn't much to look at, but it's like I said, the fun's on the inside." With that said, Yang bounded her way to the front door without waiting for us. We were forced to catch up as she threw open the door and half-shoved a bouncer out of the way. He seemed about to stop her until he saw her hair and halted his movements.

After seeing that we were following us he stepped aside. That is until I came up last and he stopped me by the shoulder. "Keep her in line, would you? I don't need Junior getting mad about club damage again." He told me. The man was about my height and a bit broader with well-defined muscles. He wore a pair of dark shades and a pair of brass knuckles hung by his belt.

"Yeah, I'll try." I told him as I peeled his hand off my shoulder, giving his forearm a squeeze that told him I could crunch his arm in an instant. Surprisingly he didn't seem the least bit deterred. He simply flicked the knuckle-dusters once with his free hand and took back his arm. I liked the confidence.

Flashing him a douchebag smile, I followed everyone else into the club. As soon as I opened the double doors the music became much louder. Lights spilled from a variety of sources and were outlined by the foot of fog laying on the floor thanks to some well-placed fog-machines. The theme of the club itself was interesting, entirely Monochrome.

The club was fully black with white highlights. The only things that had color was the red ties that the bouncers and other employees wore and the lines of drinks at the center bar. This was where I found the first member of the team. Yang was sitting and talking with a man in a white shirt and black vest. I strolled over to ask where the other three went.

"I'm sure they'll play it cool. Oh, look. Here comes one of them now. Hey Darren, meet Junior!" She called out to me as I approached. The man turned around to greet me. He was another large and burly man with a full face beard that had the cheeks shaved off. I could have mistaken him for another bouncer if his outfit didn't scream 'Owner'.

"Well howdy-do. Name's Junior. You are?" He extended a gloved hand out to me. I shook it and noticed that where my thumb landed on his knuckle was a metal stud hidden under the cloth.

"Darren. We're here with the team for the night." He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, the other three chicks that walked in with you. I saw 'em." Yang placed a hand on his shoulder and quietly spoke to him.

"Watch your words Junior, one of them is my little sister." He jumped back.

"Little!? How old is she?" He asked. Yang told him that she was sixteen and he placed his head in his hands.

"Agh, its already dangerous enough having underage teenagers in here, but a pre-teen? I'll get shut down if anyone finds out." Junior said exasperatedly.

"Then no one's got to find out, now do they, bud?" I asked, leaning into his face. He leaned backwards but stayed in place. "Yeah, I guess not. But no drinks for her."

Yang shook her head. "She doesn't drink anyway, but why don't you bring me my strawberry-sunrise?" She asked. Junior grumbled some before beginning to shuffle off.

"A vodka too, and make it strong." I called out after him. His shoulders visibly tensed as his steps hitched for a moment. We watched him move the bartender aside and begin mixing the drink himself. The look of damaged pride was painted across his face.

"So, where'd the other three run off to in here?" I asked. Yang threw her hands in the air. "I dunno. Go mingle and find them. Just try not to get into any fights before my drink is done." She winked and I walked off. Within a few steps I began to realize this was your typical dance club, and the one pool-table was filled up.

If there was one game there was more, I was sure at least Blake was trying something for fun. This was the club district after all. So I walked around in search of either a teammate or a dice table. I managed to spot both at the same time. Sitting at a table in between some of the less sleazy guys was Ruby and Weiss at a poker table.

Weiss had a confused and guarded look on her face as both of the guys tried to explain the game to her. She had barricaded her left side with Ruby who seemed more at ease. Either she was used to these people or she didn't care. Both were possible and it could have simply been the fact that neither of them seemed like they would try hitting on her.

Weiss would have a bit more trouble in the night until her prickly personality drove them away and she simply had fun. After mapping their location in my head I began to search for Blake.

Instead of sitting in a corner reading and drinking like I thought she would, Blake stood in front of a slouched man at a Shell Game table. It was interesting that such a low-rate game was allowed within the club. I could also see Blake listening intently as the bowls were shuffled around. This was a trick that few faunas could pull off.

If you had beyond excellent hearing you could make out the faint clicks that the traditional stone makes as it hits the side of the moving shell, cup, or bowl. This trick was also impervious to the age old Sleeve Maneuver in which one would switch the stone into their right sleeve while placing one with the left, or vice versa. This usually tricked people who had excellent motion tracking.

Blake had both because she was a cat faunas. The Sleeve Maneuver was pulled and a small look of confusion crossed Blake's face as the clicking moved to where it shouldn't have been. Regardless of the scanning move though, she picked the right cup. The man was so confident that she had lost that he had even begun to say so until he saw the stone.

"I win, don't I?" Blake asked. The man looked at her before placing the bowl back down. "Double or nothing?" He asked. He was obviously sure that this was a simple mishap. Blake nodded and the sequence began. The man switched the stones twice this time. It didn't matter as Blake pulled the bowl off the stone herself. Reluctantly the man handed over two 100 lien bills, quite a bit for a gamble.

I waved Blake over as she collected her bills. "Isn't that cheating?" I asked her. She shrugged.

"It's only cheating if he wasn't already doing the same. Where's Yang at?" She asked me.

"She's waiting on our drinks. Ruby and Weiss are playing poker." Blake chuckled a bit at that.

"Weiss I could see winning that, but Ruby can't bluff. Let's just hope she doesn't lose too much." Blake said and started to walk to the table they were at. I let her leave and went back for my vodka. Junior kindly handed me the glass. Yang was no longer at the bar, which worried me somehow. I couldn't explain why. She wasn't _that_ chaotic, was she?

"Hey Junior, got any Dart-Boards in this place?" I asked. He set a freshly dried glass onto the bar. "South side."

I made a hat-tip gesture and stood up to go try my hand at it. Anyone could throw things, all I had to do was throw things with more style. Having said things being sharp made it better. I wasn't going to throw them at people, but a drunk person walking in front of the board, _accidents happen_.

I hoped they would happen. Sadly though just about everyone standing at the boards were mildly sober. Only one man was fully drunk as he focused intently on aiming his dart before his body listed and fell into the lap of another patron, knocking his drink out. I ignored the following punch and screams in favor of the game.

A losing man walked past me and I took his place. A man with a thick and grisly beard sneered at me. "Beginner's board is over there." He said, jabbing his thumb over. The man next to him took a deep draw from his cigar and nodded.

"Oh yeah, what's this one then, first-timers?" I said. The one man choked on the puff of his cigar and the larger one talking to me deepened his scowl. "What're you trying to say, boy?" He asked. 'Boy' was accurate as the man was at least thirty years older than my body's age.

I picked up a trio of gold and black dart up off the table next to me. "I'm simply saying that I can kick your ass at this game now, or you can leave and save yourselves the embarrassment." The man puffing on the cigar seemed to get nervous that I was speaking to this one in that tone.

He sneered at me before grabbing the darts out of my hand and turning around. "Those are my darts. Here." He said as he tossed a closed container of five darts behind him. I caught them easily.

"Starting at 305." The man said as he aimed and threw his dart. Needless to say things went downhill for him fast. Every round he got angrier and angrier as I pulled ahead of him with evening throws, then score-cutters. A good number of crashes were heard behind us and we ignored them. Finally I ended my game with a center bullseye and turned to him.

The cigar-man had left and the grisly man was breathing heavily in anger. "Another game?" I asked mockingly. He shook his head twice before grabbing my neck with one hand and punching me. A sore loser he was, and more so after his knuckles snapped off my shielding. A purple light danced on my skin as he cradled his hand. I wasn't at all surprised by his reaction, in fact I was hoping for it.

"Bastard. Get him boys." No one came to attack me. He looked around and noticed a good many people had begun to fight. His 'boys' were stuck in the middle of the brawl. The fights hadn't reached the dancing area or poker tables yet, but they would soon.

"You still want to try me?" I asked the man. He pulled a switchblade from his pocket with his left hand and jumped at me. "I was hoping you'd do that.

I moved aside and grabbed his left hand, swinging him with his own momentum into a table. I stared around giving a 'who's next' face. in my scanning I noticed that Junior slammed down a walkie-talkie and muttered something. I couldn't hear what he said, but he grabbed a pistol on one hand and a large metal object in the other.

It was at this point that I wondered where the bouncers had gotten off to. Everyone was wearing so much black around me that I couldn't pick one out. All I could assume was that they were in the frey somewhere and were losing. I waited where I was and let Junior try to do whatever he was doing.

He got up onto a table that wasn't turned over and fired his pistol three times. Most people turned to look at him. "Alright. Everyone on this side needs to leave. Now!" He demanded. Yang hopped up behind him and grabbed his shoulder. In a fake sweetheart voice she spoke.

"Aww c'mon. Shouldn't you let them have their fun?" He shook his head.

"Their 'fun' was started by your friend over there. He's going too." He said. I held up my hand.

"Alright now hold on just a minute..." Junior hung on my word and waited for me. I picked up my cup of vodka and drained it, ice and all. Then I looked at the glass like I was contemplating it, and threw it at Junior. The glass smashed off his face and he fell backwards. That was que for the rest of everyone to resume fighting.

Junior stood back up with his metal object and began unfolding it. "Alright hunter friend, I asked nicely."

He fired and a scattershot of rockets leapt at me. Without a weapon I could only put up my hands and project my power into a barrier in front of me. Half a dozen explosions impacted thin air in front of me. Before the smoke even cleared Junior had transformed his missile launcher into a hefty bat. His first blow cracked across my barrier and shattered it. A surprising amount of strength from a simple club owner.

The discharge of his rockets seemed to amp things up as a large group of suits rushed into the room and began knocking people out left and right. I paid them no mind as Junior charged me with his bat again. I blocked with my arms and summoned knuckle-dusters. With him this close I could easily see the blood on his face from where the glass had shattered.

He swung again and I ricocheted his bat off my knuckles before punching him heavily in the stomach. His resilience did not hold up to his strength as he crumpled inwardly for a second. After regaining his stance he struck again. I watched as no aura flickered. He had none.

In that case, he was _very_ resilient. However, he just wouldn't be able to match up. I stopped his bat with my hand and pulled it out of his, casually tossing it aside. "Better luck next time bud, but at least the vodka was good." I delivered a strong cross-chop to the side of his neck and he crumpled to the ground. No more weapons discharged, but people kept fighting.

Yang was taking on a few body-guards on her own while Ruby and Weiss had gone back to back. None of us had our weapons, or at least none to use. Yang's gauntlets were extended but she had told me on the walk here that she had opted not to load them. The metal plating on her knuckles still made her punches devastating. Her semblance wasn't even activated as she mulled about the guards.

Blake was standing on table and fighting people with a bar-stool pole. With the large and continuous influx of suits rushing towards us I decided to get some more action. I summoned a pair of knuckles on my right hand and jumped into the fray.

The guards themselves had weapons ranging from solid steel canes to jagged machetes. Having a jagged blade was not good for practical combat as it couldn't cut well, got stuck on things, and was a pain to sharpen. The first one to try using it on me made his mistake by striking downwards. I slipped around it and punched him in the center of the nose, cracking his head backwards and collapsing him.

No aura flickered on him either. I didn't expect anything more from some obviously cheap wannabe mercenary goons. They were all about intimidation. For a normal person they were dangerous. To anyone with aura they were nothing. I elbowed another guard in the jaw and broke his teeth. A third cut sideways at me and I jumped back, his blade barely missing my clothes.

He swing again and I flicked the blade off my finger before kicking out his leg and punching him down to the floor. Yang and the rest were having similar ease. Everyone had yet to activate their semblances except for me, and that was simply for harder knuckles. Any henchmen that could run were starting to and the rest lay unconscious around us.

I had a higher concentration of those unable to run at my feet than the rest of them, but they paid that fact no mind. Yang was panting with a smile on her face as she looked around for any more to fight. Ruby and Weiss seemed less entertained than her, but they both had the smallest beginnings of a grin.

A slight clank was heard as Blake dropped her pole and walked over to us. "Does this happen every time you're here?" She asked.

"Usually they know better than to pick a fight with me, especially without Melanie and Miltia. Junior must be having a bad day." Yang answered. I wanted to ask who Melanie and Miltia were, but something told me that was who Junior was trying to call before taking matters into his own hands.

"Yeah well, we should probably leave before more show up." Weiss said as she readjusted her hair.

"I second that." Ruby said. Blake agreed and even if I voiced my opinion, which would have obviously been to keep fighting, we were outnumbered.

"Alright alright, the fighting worked me up an appetite anyways. Time to get some eats." Yang said and made for us to follow her out. I was the last in line of us and nobody saw the man who grabbed my shoulder.

"Ohh, leaving so soon?" A familiar gruff voice told me. I turned around just in time to catch a bottle of cheap red wine with my mouth. The glass shattered and splashed across my cheeks in a line. It was a thinner bottle and didn't have as much area, but I could tell what it did hit would stain, including my skin. Without hesitation I decked the drunken and enraged man. He fell backwards with a groan and I spit the wine and glass out of my mouth, rubbing off what little I could before it stained.

"Who was that?" Yang asked. I grunted and told a very brief story of how I beat him at darts. She shrugged.

"Whatever, just wash off at the restaurant so the staff doesn't smell the wine on you." Yang told me. I nodded and we pushed out of the club. The streets were mostly empty until a whirring noise caught my ear. I had heard it before and couldn't place it until I saw it. Another PoI bot rolled up to me and began scanning my face once more. It lingered longer this time and a troubling thought crossed my mind before the machine droned out its response.

" **82% Match. Person of Interest similarity requirements met. Please come with me.** " The thing said to me and a heavy cuff with a chain shot out of its mid-section and latched to my arm. The tether pulled me closer until only twelve inches remained between my arm and the metal surface of the machine. It began wheeling away and Ruby called out to me.

"Hey wait up! We'll help explain things." I shot out my hand to stop her.

"No, I've got this. Go uptown a bit until you reach a place called The Lion's Den. I'll meet you there after smoothing this over." I told them as the machine picked up pace. My lie was feigning interest in keeping their night fun, but I was actually afraid that whoever I was being taken to see might pull up a picture of the occurrence I was being targeted for, and making the connection. It was a long shot, but a long shot I wasn't willing to risk.

The damned wine is the only reason I look close enough to the grotesque figure I created. If I ever saw the dart man again I would kill him slowly. Until then I was forced into a light jog alongside the machine until we got to wherever it was taking me. Sure I could destroy the machine and break the cuffs with ease, but innocent don't run.

I took in more surroundings as the droid took me through unknown back alleys and corridors I had never seen. Rats and dumpsters and homeless caught my interest, but the thing that captured me the most was all the more unsettling than my current predicament. On the horizon when I could see it, gargantuan silver ships sailed in the air in this direction. I could faintly see the same symbol as what was on the bot when I enhanced my vision.

Just what kind of reinforcements did I force to be called in?


	17. Chapter 17

The ships faded quickly from my view as me and the bot entered a hastily constructed building with the same Atlesian symbol plastered across the double doors it was taking me to. The white walls on the outside were only partially painted and scaffolding from containing the cement mold were still present. A few spotlights outside illuminated the area outside for the guards on the roof.

We pushed through the white doors and I donned my best nervous/confused face. We were in a hallway before the bot pulled me up to a control pad. A single small arm of metal inserted a piece of itself into a hole on the panel and a small discharge went off. The metal doors in front of us slid open and I continued to let myself be dragged inside the nest of my enemies.

The room itself held a chilled temperature of what I guessed was 60 degrees F., close to the conditions of Atlesian buildings I assumed. Two guards in armor had rifles slung across their backs and armed themselves when the PoI bot wheeled us into the room. One of them walked over while the other aimed his rifle at me.

"14326." The guard uttered into the robot after checking something on the back of its head. The cuff released my arm and sucked back into the machine. I rubbed my arm as if the harsh treatment was finally over.

"Would you two mind telling me where I am?" I asked the guard who set me free. He scrutinized me closely before deciding the information couldn't hurt them.

"You're in one of the five Atlesian outposts that are being built for security measures. Do you know why you're here?" He asked me. His words seemed more trusting but his partner had yet to lower his gun. Not that it would have done anything to me. I simply shrugged and tried to look somewhat nervous and confused.

"I'm not sure, but the robot dragged me here so..." I left the sentence hanging and he nodded. His partner looked at him disapprovingly while he explained things to me. "Look kid, we're gonna escort you to the back room where you'll put on these table mounted cuffs. Someone will be in to question you. Follow directions and we won't have any problems."

The guard tapped my arm twice with the barrel of his gun to move the point across that if I tried anything funny he would open fire without missing a beat. I nodded and shuffled my feet in the direction he was tapping me towards. Another hallway and sealing door later I was shoved into a white room with a black camera in one corner and a stainless steel table sitting in the center. On the side closest to me was a pair of cuffs welded and bolted on to the table. These looked much more industrious and resilient than the others. On the far side of the room was another door.

With a disappointed sounding sigh I sat down in a chair next to the table and laid my wrists onto the cuffs. They clamped down and began ratcheting, becoming skin tight in a matter of seconds. They were just loose enough that they didn't cut off much circulation, but still tight enough that you would have to break every bone in your hand to have a chance of getting out.

The room sat quiet aside from me whistling a tune to pass the minutes. I began to wonder how long they would want to hold me here if no one came to question me soon. Perhaps I could over tax the bindings of the cuffs and play off that it was an accident and they would let me leave. I could also just break out and slaughter this whole outpost, black boxes and all. The only issue with that would be the response and the force necessary to destroy black boxes that I couldn't find. There could also be server backups that would render my effort useless.

Luckily for me they did not take all night. An older man with greying hair and fancy clothes from the Victorian Era walked in, though his colors were all white. He held a mug of something in his right hand that he set down before taking a seat. Right away I saw the look of annoyance on his features and he sighed. "Of course. They couldn't tell me your face was stained, could they?" He mumbled to himself.

"What does me being stained have to do with anything?" I asked him. He looked up. "Nothing kid, nothing. That's the only real reason you look anything like our suspect, aside from unlucky genetics." He said.

"Could I see a picture of him? I might be able to help." I asked him. He shook his head. "I doubt you would have seen him and not remembered, but it isn't like showing you will hurt anything." The old man took a photo out of his overcoat and slid it across the table in front of my cuffs. I stared at him for a moment before he realized the problem.

"Right, right. Sorry." He pulled out a remote from another inside pocket and pressed a button. The cuffs ratcheted outwards and clicked open. I pulled my arms out and grabbed the photo. A ripped and bloodied face with pointed teeth and black eyes stared back at me, mid snarl. I put on a shaken expression and slid the picture back over to him.

"I definitely haven't seen anyone like him. Are you sure it isn't a mask?" I asked.

"We're uh, we're looking into that." _Yes._ This confirmed my suspicion that the soldiers had a hidden camera somewhere on their bodies. I needed more information on just how much they knew.

"Have you tried weapon profiles, searching recent purchases for the object?" I asked him. He shook his head again. "Most of the images were too dark or blurry or blocked by... blood, to be clearly seen. All we know is that it is large and made of what looks to be wrought iron." He said. "Know anything about that?"

"Almost no one makes wrought iron anymore, so maybe try searching for the largest purchase of the stuff as of recent." I offered. In reality this was a goose chase because my sword was not recently made nor was it made near this Vale at all. He took to the idea nicely though.

"Hey, that's pretty smart kid. Where'd you learn to make assumptions like that?" I sat up a little straighter and pretended speaking with pride. "I'm training to be a hunter at Beacon, so it's just one of my skills." I told him.

"A hunter huh? I don't think we collected your name." He said.

"Darren Bentley." I told him. He stood up.

"General Ironwood.

"James Ironwood. Good to meet you." He leaned across the table to shake my hand and I reciprocated. When our hands shook I felt metal under his thin dress glove. Not a weapon or plate of any kind but a metal prosthetic. From the fluidity of his handshake I could surmise that it was quite the impressive piece of hardware, so advanced and contorted to him that I would wager he forgot it wasn't real sometimes.

We sat back down and the General gained a slightly more friendly air around him. "I don't mind telling you what I've told you already as you don't have enough details to scare the public. If you're a hunter, even in training, I'm certain you won't cause trouble with it." He told me.

"So you are expecting e to tell people about this, get eyes out for anyone that looks like that? Not the best idea." I told him. He cocked his head to the side.

"That's right, but I also doubt that who-... Whatever did this didn't know about the cameras, but simply expected them." He told me. I caught another piece of his doubt that what committed the murders was human.

"Still, if he finds out you have any leads, he might still run." I explained. The more I made myself sound like I was on his side, the less he would ever look at me again. After that theory though, he still stayed silent.

"Well, I'll keep an eye and an ear out for your assailant. Can I leave now, sir?" I asked, the taste of giving a lesser man respect turning my mouth bitter. Ironwood stood up once again.

"Go ahead. I've got more important things to do than interrogate a teenager." He told me and left the room. I stood from my chair and exited through the sealed doors that opened as I approached. The guards barely looked at me as I exited the facility and turned down the street.

After the lengthy conversation and long walk the robot had dragged me through, I knew there wouldn't be any ships making any more rounds. I didn't feel like making the climb or having a drawn out glide to the school. After hopping in a taxi with the last of my money from the broken banking machines, I arrived on a road just a few miles out from the edge of the cliffs.

We were a ways from the Emerald Forest and I could see the ocean from where I was. The moon was high in the night sky and the driver was annoyed at having to take all these back roads to put me out here. He complained numerous times about the rocks scratching up the bottom of his car. I tipped more just to shut him up and left the car.

A long stroll through a field with sparse trees and even sparser animals ensued for me as I made my way closer to the school. The lights of campus were originally visible from the road, but now, at the base of the cliff, it was all dark. I scanned my surroundings for anyone that could see me before I erupted my feet into swirling flames.

The thrust of these flames carried me to the top of the cliff in less than a minute. My landing was not soft and cracked the concrete rim I landed on. The pathway to the school was lit by cool white street lamps. There was no one outside at this time. I could see that the light was on inside Ozpin's tower. He was probably unable to sleep well after our encounter and conversation. The old man was probably desperate trying to save his school without causing mass panic.

I moved on from his tower and into the school. The halls were empty of student and staff alike. While the lights were still on, they were dimmed into an energy saving mode. The quiet was actually peaceful in my opinion. I only wondered if my team was still awake, and if they were, had they brought JNPR to wait with them.

I knew that at least two out of the four of them would not come near or support me in any way unless they had to. If their friendship was as deep as RWBY's seemed to be, the other two would soon follow suit. It would most likely end bloody if they tried to challenge me like Jaune had. Maybe if the entire team were to fight me at once I would let them win, but that depended on whether or not Ruby had told them just how fast I was.

The hallway that held our dorms was just as silent as the last I had walked through. I quietly opened the door in case the team was asleep. I didn't exactly feel like answering questions until the morning. To my displeasure the light hit my face and I heard a few metal pieces clatter on the desk to my left. Ruby was working on a half dismantled Crescent Rose, one of her coping mechanisms for stress.

Before I could properly defend myself, Ruby had wrapped me in a hug that would have tackled most people out in the hallway. I stood there, not sure if it would cause tension with her overprotective sister if I faked feelings and reciprocated. I compromised and simply patted her on the back lightly, disgusted yet impressed by how much she actually cared about me.

Ruby removed her head from my chest a second later and wiped a small tear away. "We were worried about you." She told me. I shrugged as if the situation hadn't concerned me.

On the bed behind me, Weiss asked me a question. "How did you manage to get out of there so fast?"

Questions, the most annoying thing I had encountered so far. "I just told Ironwood that I was a hunter in training, and after seeing the wine on my face, he figured out he had the wrong guy." I explained.

"Did he tell you anything about what happened?" Blake asked me.

"Someone with a mask or got to a few people and they haven't been able to find him since. They've got some leads, and I gave him a few ideas, but he would like things kept on the down-low." I told her. Blake nodded and picked up a book to read. Oftentimes I figured this was just a guise to think after I watched her 'read' a few times and her eyes never moved across the pages.

"Well, in any case, you're back. And that's all that matters." I nodded and walked to the bathroom so I could wash the red off my face.

 **Ozpin**

On Ozpin's clockwork desk his scroll vibrated. On the screen the green tinted visage of General Ironwood appeared. With a sigh the professor rubbed his tired eyes and picked up the device. A clear voice with a hint of pride behind it spoke through the speaker. "Have you seen them yet, Oz?"

The professor sighed again as he stood up. "No James, I haven't, but I'm checking out the window now." The grey haired man stayed silent for another few seconds as his eyes saw past blurred vision and locked onto the horizon. Airships and battleships were floating into the skies of Vale. Any other time this happened Ozpin would have criticized his colleague for bringing warships in a time of peace. Now though, they were welcome.

"Do you like what you see Oz?" Ironwood asked. A soft smile spread across Ozpin's face.

"Yes. I know I haven't given you much information on the matter, and this is no small order to be placed on a simple whim. Thank you James." Ozpin replied.

"You've never given me a reason not to trust you. I follow a hunch from you the same as I would a direct order. And anything that can scare you into asking this kind of help, I'm sure you needed it. And well... I had my reasons as well. If anything else, we will simply call it a show of strength from Atlas for the festival." As good a cover as any.

"I hope we won't have to. Maybe though, I may be able to get some sleep tonight." He said.

 **I hope you enjoyed this one. Leave a review if you've got anything to say, and stay frosty.**


	18. Chapter 18

The morning started off as per usual. Wake up, grab breakfast in the cafeteria, get questioned by Ruby, resist urge to kill sooner than needed, and begin classes. After combat classes and Grimm biology, we had our break classes in the library that were supposed to be used for studying. Very little of that was done.

I was introduced to the very odd game of World of Remnant V5. Version five was special in the fact that it was new and that it was the first game to include the legions of Grimm, housing them on the 'uninhabited continent'. I logically took these as my character once I was shoved into the game with the rest of my team members.

I had one goal. Win this as fast as possible so I didn't have to deal with it anymore. So I began to survey my prey while making only defensive moves while Ruby and the rest began to war with each other like they must have on previous versions. Atlas was too strong to fight head to head at this stage, and Vacuo was too well prepared for the roughness of life.

That left me with Vale and Mistral. Vale was a generic Kingdom, reliable military, decent advancements, a possibly strong people. Mistral however had been referred to many times as "The land of all things pretty". Their people were over-pampered and were almost never engaged in conflict due to the fact that they supplied the other kingdoms with a surplus of advanced civilian products that made the world bearable. Better yet, Mistral was being played by Blake.

Blake was detached right now, and you could see it in the moves she made. Aimless decisions that harmed her own economy while she made no moves to raise a military despite this being a war game. The most vulnerable kingdom under the most vulnerable and inexperienced mind at the table. Once she was gone, her kingdom would become another Grimm nest.

Certainly I would have liked to arise a godlike figure to sweep across the kingdoms, knocking them down in hour's game time, minutes real time. An avatar of such proportions though were not in my cards. The closest was a Grimm Wyvern. A massive beast that required the sacrifice of thousands of my troops to form. I would work on that.

I started off slow, keeping ranks of Nevermore airborne around Mistral in order to cut off supply roots in and out of the Kingdom. One rank of Grimm sea monsters was stationed at Mistral's most used docks. Blake hardly took any notice to my moves and placed an inadequate amount of soldiers to deal with the swarms at the docks. They fell.

Her economy grew into despair under her notice as the resources they were used to began to dwindle. Conflicts rose in the other kingdoms as Yang puppeteered Weiss, and all three suspected the others of taking their supply ships for themselves. I reinforced my Nevermore numbers around the map until no supply or communication ships were passing between Kingdoms, and then I made my first attack.

By sacrificing numerous Beowolf spawning pools for pools of greater Grimm I raised ranks of Chargers and Ursai in order to break into Mistral and use enormous numbers of Grunts and Beowolves to deal with Blake's meager military. She didn't put up much of a fight, though she couldn't have even if she tried.

Without communication, Yang, Ruby, and Weiss were not to act as if Mistral was destroyed or it would be something called, 'Meta-Gaming'. So they continued to rise tensions, eventually declaring war on each other. I raised my numbers while Weiss was ripped apart as she tried to orchestrate peace between Vacuo and Vale.

As a result, the mighty military of Atlas was weak and vulnerable. I attacked Atlas while Weiss defended herself as best she could while trying to send out S.O.S signals to Ruby or Yang. No ships made it past and Atlas fell in three rounds. Ruby and Yang were forced to keep fighting as if they didn't know what had happened.

With three spawning grounds my numbers swelled greatly while Ruby and Yang fought for ground on each other's territories so that they would have to kingdoms to fight me with. Unfortunately both of the kingdoms were evenly matched and they only succeeded in leveling each other with little left. I took down Ruby and Vale first.

By roll of knowledge, Yang no knew that 3/4 Kingdoms were under my command. She fortified her defenses as best she could while I farmed numbers. She managed to gather a 'sizeable' military in the rounds it took me to gain a gargantuan number of Grimm. I gathered every Grimm I had outside the walls of Vacuo and waited my next turn.

Yang then witnesses hundreds of thousands of Grimm turn to ash and gather into five epicenters. Out of those gatherings rose five Wyverns that wreathed hellfire across her kingdom and destroyed it in just an hour's time in game.

Angry at being defeated, Yang demanded a rematch. I obliged as I found some sick enjoyment from utterly destroying her while she was forced to watch. While Ruby reset the pieces she called out to JNPR at the table next to us. "He Jaune, want to Co-Command a kingdom next round?"

Jaune glanced up for merely a second before shaking his head. "No, I'm alright." And he returned to his book. Ruby cocked her head to the side.

"What, why not? C'mon, Blake barely played last round, she needs the help." She said. Jaune looked up with a scowl on his face.

"I said no Ruby. Not this time." Jaune buried his face back into his book and Yang shot him a sideways glance. JNPR stayed silent as if this was normal behavior for the light-hearted Jaune. With a slightly distraught look on her face Ruby returned to the game pieces. Behind us a voice greeted us with an insult. "Sup losers."

"Hey Sun." Ruby greeted the monkey Faunus. Ever since we had chased him down the first time the rest of my team had formed a friendship with him. He and I never talked aside from some comments aimed at me being shady.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Ice, Queen, Dark Side, I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend." Weiss complained about her widely used nickname while I tolerated mine. The friend he had talked about made a comment about how libraries were for reading and was scolded by Sun about being a nerd.

"I'm Neptune." He said.

"So Neptune, where are you from?" Weiss asked in an intrigued tone.

"Haven." He replied." And I don't think I caught your name, Snow Angel." Neptune said. Weiss looked taken aback by the compliment despite hating other guys that used it.

"Uh, I'm Weiss." She said and exchanged other formalities. On the other side of the table Sun began speaking with Blake.

"I never thought of you as the board game playing type." He said. Blake distantly set down her cards.

"Right... Well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later." Without another word from either her or us she left the library. Sun just held up his arms as if to say, 'what you gonna do'. We all knew that it was best to just let Blake think about whatever was on her mind instead of cornering her. Last time she disappeared for the weekend, and none of us wanted a repeat.

With about another hour to kill Ruby roped us back into a few more games while co-manning Mistral with a random number generator on specially marked cards. This made Mistral the easiest target as it couldn't strategize. I always took Mistral first, and then Vale or Vacuo. By that point in the game Atlas was weak enough to take. I made it a point to kill Yang's king in increasingly embarrassing ways, at one point recalling all forces and Wyverns to let a single Grunt pass through unharmed and end the game.

At that ending she flipped the table and Ruby picked up the pieces as the bell for class rang. Yang complained about her losses constantly throughout the next two periods and all the way back to the dorm where Blake had gone ahead to. "Ugh, we should have never let him play." She said as we walked in.

"You're just mad that the new guy beat you over and over and over again." Yang balled her fists as she continued. Weiss began following Blake's movements slowly across the room. "If you had just attacked when I told you none of this would have ever happened." Ruby taunted.

Blake made a silent beeline for the door until Weiss confronted her. "Stop." She said in such a level and forceful voice that Ruby and Yang's conversation stopped. "Blake, lately you've been quiet, anti-social, and moody." Weiss said.

"Uh, have you met Blake?" Yang commented while Weiss ignored her.

"Which, I get, is kind of your thing. But you've been doing it more than usual, which quite frankly, is unacceptable. You made a promise to me, to all of us, that you would let us know if something was wrong." She continued, then it took a turn for the stupid. "So Blake Belladonna..."

Weiss proceeded to, with an unneeded bout of athleticism, front-flip into a chair and land balanced with her finger in Blake's face. "What. Is. Wrong?!"

With no response and an awkward silence accumulating, she quickly returned the chair to a desk and jumped back to in front of Blake. Despite the foolishness of the accusation, Blake broke. "I just... I don't understand how everyone can be so calm." She said.

"You're still thinking about Torchwick." Ruby stated/questioned.

"Torchwick, the White Fang, this crazed murderer who took out an Atlesian squad, even with experimental weaponry. Something big is happening and no one is doing anything to stop it!" Blake half yelled. My crafted heart skipped a beat as Blake stated information that I wasn't told and didn't tell her.

"Ozpin told us not to worry. Between the police and the huntsman I'm sure they can handle it." Yang tried to reason with her to no avail.

"Well I'm not! They don't know the White Fang like I do." She rallied. Despite the good point Weiss put up her hands to calm everyone down, mostly Blake.

"Okay. Between blowing up nightclubs, stopping thieves, fighting for freedom, and doing whatever it is Darren did to get that good, I'm sure you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne're-do wells." Weiss said. Ruby tried to ask what ne're-do wells meant but was ignored.

"But let me once again be the voice of reason." Weiss continued. "We're students. We're not ready to handle this sort of situation." She said. Ruby tried to pipe up once again but Weiss shut her down. "We're not ready!" She told her.

"And we may never be ready!" Blake shouted. "Our enemies aren't going to sit around and wait for graduation day. They're out there, somewhere, planning their next more. And none of us know what it is! But it's coming, whether we're ready or not." At this point I decided to step in and see if I could steer this conversation where I wanted it.

"And what would you have us do Blake." I asked. Blake got an angry and confused look on her face. "No really, tell me." I kept speaking, stepping closer.

"Look around you Blake! We are _students_. I'm just some guy from way too far up north, Ruby and Yang grew up on an island few people know exist, _you_ cant step near the White Fang without getting attacked. The only person in this room who knows someone who knows someone who _thinks_ they know something is Weiss, and only because she's an heiress and has a connection to the Schnee Su" I explained to Blake.

"Yeah well..." Blake puttered off. I kept going. "If we try to go off on some five person war-band we will get kicked out of this school. Any resources or chances we have at more training will be _gone_. So what do you want to do?" I asked her.

"I don't know!" Blake yelled and sat back onto a bed with her head in her hands. "Maybe we can't fight them but we can at least try to find out who else the White Fang is working with and why." Blake sighed in a hitched way that made her seem close to tears. Weiss went over to comfort her.

"Wait, the SDC is the devil in the details, no offense Weiss." Yang said. Weiss ignored it despite being mildly offended. "Your point?" Blake asked.

"Maybe Weiss could, I don't know, scan the hard drives for missing information, stuff that doesn't belong." Weiss looked up from Blake.

"I'd have to pull a few strings, but it's possible." She said. Yang smiled.

"Alright, and Darren, I might not have grown up around sources, but I have them. Even if they have very spotty memory until you give them money. I know a few on the other side of town that I could go to. It should be easy." Yang said. Blake started to perk up.

"The White Fang hold weekly meetings. Maybe I could infiltrate and get some information." She proposed. I held my hand up and stopped her.

"No. You are a hazard in there. I'll go." Blake shook her head. "You'd never pass as Faunus." I chuckled and held out my hands. From my fingernails sprouted summoned claws that, combined with illusion, were indistinguishable from real claws. I also summoned white fangs and peeled my lips to show her. Despite the show she chuckled.

"I meant your smell. They couldn't catch you at a distance, but up close it would be easy." She told me. I shrugged.

"I'll just wear an entire bottle of cologne. Even humans won't want to smell me after that. It should be able to deter a Faunus nose." I told her. Blake pondered it then nodded. "Humans have done it before, and even regular cologne hurts some of the dog Faunus' noses." She said.

"Okay. So I'll follow Weiss to the CCT and Blake can give Yang backup if she needs it. We'll all meet up back here once we got what we needed, sound good?" Ruby asked. Nobody said anything and Ruby cheered. "Alright!" She said. Blake grabbed my arm as Ruby and Yang high-fived.

"Look Darren, I know you're strong, but a room full of dozens of White Fang soldiers, some with their aura unlocked-" I cut her off.

"I'll go easy on them." She shook her head. "No, I'm saying that if things go wrong, _don't_ hold back, or you won't make it out of there alive." I nodded in acceptance, then remembered something.

"How did you know about the Atlas squad and the weaponry? They didn't tell me any of that." Blake chuckled. "Just like Yang has her sources, I have mine." I nodded again and stepped away, preparing to get everyone's attention.

"All right. Now that we've got a plan, we need to keep this on the extremely down low. No teachers, no friends, no anybody. The more people who know the more obvious it is." I told them.

"What about JNPR?" Ruby asked. Before I could say anything Yang answered for me. "I don't think they would join even if we asked them. They've all been kind of distant recently, even Nora. Maybe you should have a talk with them Darren, apologize." She proposed.

"Yeah, maybe. For now though that doesn't matter. Let's start this tomorrow on a good night's rest." Weiss said. We all agreed, but I left the dorm like a normal person to take a walk around campus. Just as I exited the door and turned around I felt an impact as someone bounced off my chest. The grunt was feminine.

"Oh, ow." The girl said as I looked down. Green hair and red eyes, a trait I would be able to recognize easily if I had seen it before. The girl pushed herself off the ground and dusted her skirt off. "Who are you?" I asked her, noticing her two friends behind her. One had silver hair and the other black, covering one eye and exposing another orang-yellow color.

"I'm Emerald. Thanks for the help." She said sarcastically. I huffed.

"Yeah. I meant who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked again. The girl with black hair walked forward and stood a mere foot from me. "I'm Cinder, and these are my teammates, Mercury and, well you've met Emerald. And who are you?" She asked as she traced a finger on my collarbone to my shoulder. I realized that when standing over a foot and a half shorter than me that this was her form of intimidation.

"Darren. Now, the other part of my question." I said. She stopped and dropped her finger as well as the act. "No fun. Alright, we're exchange students from Haven." Cinder told me.

"Nice. Now you see, students for the festival have their own dorms east of here." I told them. Cinder smiled weakly and I saw an odd glint in her eyes that was quite literally a spark.

"Good to know. We must have just gotten turned around." She said, and began to walk past me when I grabbed her hand.

"This is a 2.5 square-mile campus and there are signs _everywhere_. Next time try not lying." I told her. A flash of flame emanated from her hand and singed the hair on my arm before I blocked it with me fake aura. I held on for another second before releasing her. A barely controlled anger was hiding in her one exposed eye.

"My thanks. We'll keep that in mind." She said entirely sarcastically and with a deadly edge. I let her walk away and we went our separate edge while I engraved her features into my memory.

 **Cinder**

After taking a few turns to go to the dorms they were assigned Emerald finally spoke up. "Who was that guy?" She asked. Cinder frowned deeply and the engravings on her dress flickered briefly. "An issue. A strong and observant issue, but one that can be taken care of. I'll make sure of it." She said. A smile grew across her face as she imagined dismembering the man.

 **Thanks for reading. Pieces have been moved out of their original places as the timeline takes a turn for the screwed. I can hardly wait to get started on the next chapter. As always, leave a review if you liked it. As a request from me, try to leave any odd abilities you think Darren could be able to pull off as long as they are somewhat loosely bound to the laws of physics.**


	19. Chapter 19

We all woke up early enough to once-over the plan again without being heard. Blake made sure the windows were closed and the curtains pulled over them. A bit paranoid, but I guess she had reason to be with her past. We all dressed in an outfit different enough from our combat gear that we wouldn't be as easily recognized. My own clothes were 'changed' to a deep purple hue with flecks of silver and running streaks of the same highlighting the pattern of a collared suit on me.

"Alright, so me and Weiss will go to the CCT and gather what information we can and then come back here to sort through it. Yang's heading over to Junior's again with Blake. Darren will buy up some cologne and head to the meeting. All good?" Ruby asked. All of us nodded and Blake turned to me.

Before heading to Junior's I'm going to get in contact with a few sources for the meeting, then text you the time and address. Take this." Blake pulled something out of her travel bag and handed it to me. It was a collapsible White Fang mask. I nodded as I crunched it up and put it in my pocket.

"And I'll be on standby until then." Everyone nodded again. "Alright good. Let's get classes done and do this." She said. We all donned our school uniform over our clothes and dealt with the day as if everything was normal. If and when anyone asked about our plans we were to say we were all seeing a new movie.

Nobody asked though, and JNPR seemed to avoid us all and were aggressive at me. I say aggressive because when no one was looking Nora spat at my feet and shoved me out of the way. Ren stuck a safety needle in my arm as we passed and Jaune attempted to trip me but I hopped over his leg. I pretended to be confused and hurt but didn't follow up. A problem for another day, but probably someday soon.

Other than that the day was normal. We met outside of the school and split up then at 4:00. Blake said the meeting would almost definitely be after sundown so I had some waiting time. The drive was long to the other side of town and Yang decided to hit up a few side-sources along the way. I was left alone in the walkway of the school and made my way to town on the side of a bullhead.

First stop was cologne, as was necessary. The guy behind the counter was kind and asked me if I needed any help. "Do you have anything animals would hate?" I asked. He tilted his head and pointed at the back. "Strange, but yeah. Grey metal bottles in the corner. They make you smell like a brewery that got hit with a mint truck, mixed with just a bit of cigarettes." He said. What a colorful description.

I walked and found the metal bottles labeled, "Rich Homeless". I grabbed three of the somewhat larger bottles and rang them up. After walking outside and climbing a nice rooftop I proceeded to spray the stuff on me until even my nostrils were burning. I kept the last bottle for a final coating before the meeting. Then it was just waiting until either I was needed or Blake gave me my information.

Fortunately I was not left bored for long as within half an hour Ruby shot me a text. **"Moving by the park with a friend. Watch over, I've got an off feeling about things."** The message said. A simple request and the park was only half a dozen rooftops away. So I hopped across like a master free-runner and watched out for the red of Ruby's cloak.

She appeared a few streets over from the bank and sitting in a small cage. The ginger was with her, Penny. Seeing her very existence defying some rules of the natural order and how souls worked left a bad taste in my mouth as I watched them. Ruby scanned the rooftops a few seconds and didn't find me, but seemed content I was around somewhere.

I watched as the 'girl' jumped when Ruby laid a hand on her shoulder. She was jumpy, scared even, but Ruby's presence seemed to calm her. Oddly enough, her soul did not seem ripped around by her emotions the same way it did when she moved, as if her emotions were real. It would not surprise me that even in this state the soul retained parts of itself.

Ruby goaded the girl into a walk and explained that she was gathering information on the White Fang, but managed to keep her out of the loop by maintaining a guise that all she knew was that the event at the docks were strange. Penny apologized and said she knew nothing about it. The two continued walking and conversing and I hopped a few rooftops to keep up with their pace.

Nothing interesting was said as they reached the end of the street. A familiar voice was flooding out of some speakers nearby. Ironwood. Looking over I was that it was simply a hologram. The white-clad man was presenting about the current droid model that Atlas had been using. Penny and Ruby came to a stop as they listened with me.

"But, the kingdom of Atlas is a kingdom of innovation, and fine, well that's just not good enough, is it?" The general said as doors opened to reveal a new model, sleeker and brighter than the models before them. As Ironwood stated their model they theatrically stamped down their precursors as people clapped. "Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary." He stated.

The droids took on poses that gave them a personality, flexing, thumbs up, etc. "These models will become active later this year, but they won't be alone. Now, the Atlesian military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield. However, there are still many situations that undoubtedly require a _human_ touch." Ironwood said.

Far below me I heard Penny apprehensively say Ruby's name in order to get her attention. The lack of response showed the effort futile as she watched enraptured by the mysterious next item.

"Our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the SDC, are proud to introduce, the Atlesian Paladin!" He announced. His figure disappeared and was replaced by a life size replica of a giant bipedal droid with multiple turrets, heavy armor, and many more systems I likely couldn't name.

"Now we couldn't have them here today, but these mechanized battle suits will be seen defending the boarders of our kingdoms within the year!" People applauded loudly and below me Penny once again tried to shake Ruby out of her stupor as she drooled over the tech. I followed her gaze and saw two human guards pointing at her and beginning to run in her direction.

Fortunately Ruby heard her and they began to run across the street and down the alley. A far jump, but after bouncing across the light poles I was following undetected. The guards followed them through more alleys and streets. At one point a guard was almost run over and they were slowed by the encounter. As I ran with the two of them Ruby sliced down a large shipment of boxes to block the guards paths.

Soon after she used her semblance to vault into Penny and vault again down the hall. I faded all colors from my body and bent light around my face until there was naught but void and landed behind the guards as she encountered the boxes. Ruby was right, something was up and I didn't need these two interfering. I quickly severed the first guard's head and muffled the scream of the other with my hand as I slit his throat.

I waited patiently as his convulsions stopped before flicking the blood of my blade and jumping up to a rooftop at the end of the alley the two boosted down. Right before I made it up top I heard a thunderous and clanging boom along with cracking rubble. A few dozen feet away and on ground level was Penny, arms outstretched, holding back the weight of an armored bank truck.

This is possible, if incredibly difficult, to pull off. With an insane amount of aura and a body pushed to its limits she could have done this, but she had none of this. The way her aura moved showed that her body was not even generating an aura shield, so there was no way her body could take that stress.

After making sure the driver was alright Penny ran down the alley across from her to escape the attention she had gathered. Ruby followed and I hopped unseen across the street again. We ran for a good ways as we both separately followed Penny through two more turns until the ginger stopped. Ruby caught up.

"Penny, please, what is going on? Why are you running? How did you do that?" Ruby asked. Penny had returned to her originally jumpy state amplified tenfold. "I-I can't. Everything's fine. *hic* I don't want to talk about it. *hic*" The 'girl' tried to speak convincingly but it was obvious that she was lying due to her nervous tic of hiccupping. Ruby saw through it as well.

"Penny, if you could just tell me what's wrong I can help you!" She pleaded. Penny turned away.

"No, no no. You wouldn't understand." Penny argued, becoming reclusive in her nervous actions.

"Let me try. You can trust me." Ruby said. Penny seemed to break and turned to her.

"You're my friend, right? You promise you're my friend?" Penny asked desperately. Ruby gained a sincere tone as she answered.

"I promise." Ruby answered. Penny lowered her head and stuck out her arms. Metal glinted in her palms as the sunlight bounce off them. Skin was peeled back to reveal a harder core that would explain many things.

"Ruby, I'm not a real girl." Penny admitted. Ruby could only stare dumbfounded while I pieced things together. A machine with a soul somehow bound into it. That would explain the odd personality, near impossible durability, and why the guards were after her. She must be an incredibly valuable piece of hardware and research.

"Penny, I don't understand." Ruby told her. Penny had calmed down and gave clear, sincere answers.

"Most girls are born, but I was made. I'm the first synthetic person capable of generating an aura. I'm not real." She said. More like contorting an aura to be honest. The emotions were the only part about the aura that I could see were willing. I don't know how they bound the soul to metal and other synthetics, but it was obviously rejecting those materials. Whenever it moved the body it was jerked and stretched in ways it shouldn't be, yet it couldn't convey that into thoughts.

In some ways I think her soul and aura simply accepted this shell as their existence, and tried to live as a person. I was all for killing, maiming, and breaking a person, but when they die their soul should leave their body and go to the afterlife. A soul was not meant to exist outside of its original body. As horrible as I was, even I wouldn't dare to break those laws.

"Of course you are." Ruby argued. She began to go into some short-winded speech about how Penny was just as real as all of us, and ended with them hugging. The talk changed course after Ruby mentioned her father.

"Oh, he's very sweet. My father's the one that built me. I'm sure you would just love him." Penny told Ruby.

"Wow, so he built you all by himself?" She asked. Penny shrugged and answered, "Well, almost. He had some help from Mister Ironwood." She told Ruby. That information didn't sit right with me, but perhaps I could use that information as leverage if I ever revealed myself to the man.

"The General? Wait, is that why those soldiers were after you?" Ruby asked. Penny smiled.

"They like to protect me too." Ruby chuckled at her answer.

"They don't think you can protect yourself?" Ruby said. Penny seemed to get distraught.

"Well, they're not sure if I'm ready yet. One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world, and test myself in the tournament." Penny said resolutely.

"Penny, what are you talking about? We're in a time of peace." Ruby said. Wrong in some ways, right in others. I haven't been known long enough for her to be built in order to combat me.

"That's not what Ironwood said." Ruby cocked her head and Penny gasped as she realized that what she said was probably confidential. "Well anyway, I should probably go back to them so they don't worry. Just promise me you won't tell anyone about my secret, alright?" Penny asked, but it wasn't up for debate.

"O-Okay, but we need to talk about this some more soon, okay?" Ruby asked. Penny nodded and walked away back across the street and into a different alley. With two dead guards in the alley not far from there, I needed Ruby to get away from the location so she couldn't hear any screams Penny may let out at the sight of them. I used my scroll and texted her.

 **"Head down the alley you're in, I'll be on the other side after the turn."**

 **"Ok."**

I ran across the rooftops to meet her at the specified location while she tiredly walked there. She seemed drained after the encounter and after learning that Penny was made of metal, it made sense. Warping a second body of that weight into your speed would be taxing to her. I made it to the entrance and leaned against a wall as I waited.

Ruby appeared around the corner breathing heavily. It looked like she had been hiding how tired she was to Penny while they talked. As soon as she reached me Ruby slid down the wall and sighed. "Thanks for the lookout, but it turned out to be nothing." Ruby said.

"It doesn't always have to be something, though that was a neat stunt Penny pulled with the truck. She must have a ton of aura." I said nonchalantly as Ruby looked at me.

"Hey, you didn't hear or see anything odd, did you?" She asked. I shook my head. "No. Why, was there something to hear or see?" I lied.

Ruby shook her head and smiled. "Nope, just some personal stuff. We were both silent for a bit until I got a text from Blake.

 **"8:00. 5th of Church Street. Wear the mask when you greet the doorman."**

It was 4;45 now. I showed Ruby the text and she nodded. "What now?" I asked her. She shrugged, finally catching her breath.

"I'm actually going to rest here for a bit longer. Speed boosting while carrying Penny was exhausting. She isn't as light as she looks." Ruby told me.

"Alright. Well I've got a few hours to kill so I'm going to go get back into standby." I told her. Ruby gave me the thumbs up and I jumped to some windowsills and started climbing up them. I made a quick pass over where I had killed the guards to see Penny in tears as she frantically checked for a pulse on the one that still had a head. Blood was on her hands.

If I was lucky she might get pegged for it as the last to see them alive and the one who found them with blood on her. There were no cameras around, but she likely wouldn't be named a suspect.

I returned to my building and watched the sun slowly begin to droop to the horizon. The cologne on me was still strong, but Ruby had made no comment. To be safe I would get another extra bottle and apply it like an asshole in the faction meeting. At the same time I texted Blake in order to formulate a plan if things went squirrely at the meeting.

I was to keep her on call during the meeting so she could interpret things. She would give me a quick out if I needed to, then her and Yang would try to meet me outside in between the buildings to escape. A good plan, but if it failed a lot of Faunus were going to die tonight.

 **Sorry for the extra few days. I was on a block as for how to wrap up the Ruby/Penny confrontation with the guards dead. Thanks for the power suggestions I got. Leave a review if you want and stay tuned for more.**


	20. Chapter 20

**I'm horribly sorry about the wait. This is probably the fifth time I've written the chapter and it only now sounds good. It had been bland and forced the last few times I wrote it, but I finally got my drive back. I'm in school again which strangely enough, should help me get chapters out quicker. I hope you enjoy this one, I put some extras into this fight scene.**

 **It's not as long, but you'll see why I had to stop where I did.**

After applying my first bottle outside the door and donning my mask, I summoned my fake faunus appendages and walked up to the door man who was posing as your typical hobo. "I'm here for the meeting." I stated. His eyes bugged out and he stood up.

"What are you, stupid? Keep your voice down." He said and dug for some keys.

"Right, sorry. New recruit here." I said. He huffed and opened the door.

"Just don't cause a scene. Stand still, shut up, and cheer at the right moments. You'll fit right in." The man said and ushered me in. His advice was almost word-for-word what Blake had told me. That didn't matter though. I walked down a small hallway and started the call to Blake before pushing through a set of double doors and heading into the meeting. Immediatley I was encountered by many other faunus that were wearing the same mask as me. Quietley I slipped through the crowd towards the front stage where some representative was spouting pro-faunus testaments.

When they complained I simply took the persona of a passionate new recruit who wanted front-row seats. When I finally got as close as I could the representative was just ending his speech and introducing someone to his left, my right. He named the person a comrade, and the key to their success. On que a very familliar ginger mob leader with a cane. Roman Torchwick entered the stage.

I muttered the name as if unbelieving, but in reality I was telling Blake. Roman entered while repeating 'thank you' as almost every faunus in the room tried booing him off stage and a few threw things at him.

One deer-faunus yelled out, "What's a human doing here?"

Torchwick smiled and said, "Well I'm glad you asked deary. Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans are the _worst._ Case and Point." He stated, pointing to himself.

"So", He continued, "I understand why you would love to see us all locked away or, better yet, killed." Roman continued to win over the crowd, speaking of common enemies, being the higher ups, all human. Pasting more blame on humans for faunus' rotten lives had the crowd cheering him on soon enough.

"Humans are all pests that need to be dealt with. Fortunatley, I'm the best exterminator around." Roman said in a sinister, more quiet voice. As he turned around Roman threw off the giant White Fang banner. Behind the bannner stood an Atlesian Paladin. I muttered the words again to alert Blake and I heard her quiet gasp through my jacket, but it was faint. No one else could hear over the wild cheering that ensued at the sight of the massive war machine.

"As you all may have heard, this is Atlas' latest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my, _employer,_ we've managed to snag a few before they uh, hit the shelves." Roman kept speaking. The Paladin was coated in a darker paint with other White Fang graffitti on it.

"Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the south east. If you would rather stay within the city, that's fine. But if you're truly ready to fight for what you belive in, this is the arsenal I can provide you." More cheering, I raised my fist in the air along with many others.

"Will all new recruits please come forward." Roman commanded, and I stood my place against the slow surge of bodies, wanting to remain close to the exits. I looked for an inconspicuous place to exit when my scroll vibrated in my pocket. Looking down showed me the faint glow of the call I was in with Blake. Looking up granted me the sight Roman throwing down his cigar and walking towards me.

"I've been had." I whispered into the phone. There was no response until Roman was almost at the edge of the stage. "Hit a power panel. He can't see in the dark." Blake said quickly. I scanned fast and saw a silver box. With one hand I threw a summoned blade at the box and with the other I called forth a force rune, pushing Roman back and into the leg of the Paladin.

The second the room went dark I turned intangible. In pitch black I was as thin as smoke and drifted through the room and to the exit, materialising and knocking out the guard in the hallway. Behind me I heard a ridiculously powerful engine start up and multiple technological beeps. Roman was in the suit. I was outside in a hurry and bolted for the rooftops.

Roman crashed through the wall in the Paladin and chased me. The pace that hulking machine was able to put out was impressive as it kept up with me running at least 35mph. Blake joined Weiss and Ruby into the group call and gave them my location. "Everyone hurry. Darren needs backup." She said. I yelled out the highway in front of me as I passed by a street near Junior's club, and I heard my own voice from a scroll.

With the throaty roar of an engine, Blake and Yang were following us. I leaped onto the raised highway and Torchwick followed me, knocking cars off the road in his pursuit. That machine could really move because on the roof of a car at highway speeds, it was gaining. Multiple gunshots sounded as they impacted with the power-suit's legs to no avail.

Weiss leaped from a higher bridge a few moments to late for her ice to form and Roman barreked faster. "Darren, we need to get this guy off the road, hes hurting civillians!" Yang yelled into the call. I could care less about the civillians, but that wouldn't look right.

"Darren, Iron Shoulder!" Ruby yelled into the call. I looked around and saw a sliver of red from a nearby rooftop. 'Iron Shoulder' was a singular move Ruby had designed for me to use on larger Grimm. I let the machine gain on me as I summoned rows of force runes down my right arm and two propulsions at my feet. The second he was in line I jumped.

The metal roof of the car bent inwards as I bashed into Roman's side with enough force to knock him off balance. He fell through the barrier and down onto an empty concrete lot. In a rush of petals Ruby was standing in front of it. The rest of us landed next to her, weapons drawn. "Freezerburn!" Ruby called out, jumping back. I moved to the side and let them do their thing.

Weiss summoned a sheet of soft ice as Yang punched thee ground with her gauntlets, creating a large plume of fog that allowed us to see the tracking lasers and stay hidden. Blake and Yang acted as bait, drawing the cannons on the machine to strike as she jumped forwards. Using her Velocity state briefly, she impacted the chest of the robot hard enough to stagger it before returning to normal. She was getting good at that.

"Checkmate!" Ruby called out, using a multitude of team attacks to take out some of the trackign lasers. Weiss was impacted backwards with an energy blast as Roman launched a barage of missiles. Blake and I cut them down as Ruby called out 'LadyBug'. Ruby and Blake charged in, using swirling combo attacks to try and weaken the legs. Nothing so far had been even scratching the paint.

That changed when Ruby and Blake launched up and Ruby _pulled_ Blake into her Velocity state. The strain on her aura was immediate and black petals sprouted from her skin as the sliced straight through the shoulder of the machine. When they landed Blake all but collapsed as Yang ran up and jumped towards the cockpit, fist ready.

After latching onto the metal frame Yang started blasting the glass to get to Roman. With a surprising move Roman blasted forwards with back jets, barreling through three concrete bridge pillars with Yang as the wedge. As she fell off the cover the cannon arm transformed into a fist and smashed Yang out of the air and through the final pillar.

Blake cried out at her partner and Ruby reassured her, at least at first. After Yang stayed down Ruby's face turned from a slight grin to worry. Blake made to help her partner but fell back down to a kneel. Weiss was back and preparing as Torchwick turned towards us. The robot raised its cannons towards us and prepared to fire, and then the temperature dropped.

Between the Paladin's legs I watches as Yang got up. The majority of her hair had turned to a pearlescent light blue with glowing gold streaks running through it. Her eyes were blue once again, but a much deeper shade this time. After the temperature drop, the rise was much more noticable. Any remaining fog from earlier boiled away from her as she slowly walked towards Torchwick.

Torchwick turned and threw a punch at Yang. This time however the blow was stopped cold by a simple raised hand, and the surface of the steel began to turn red from the heat. She glowed brighter for just a moment and the hand turned to liquid against hers. Torchwick kicked Yang backwards and she became airborne, her strength doing nothing to keep her on the ground.

"Orbital Strike!" Ruby called out as Yang neared us. I raised my sword in one hand and placed the flat of the blade in the other. Yang's boots impacted the blade with a metallic tone as I pushed upwards. Her feet exploded as she launched a good 10 stories above Torchwick and began falling. Once she began her descent Weiss case multiple Glyphs that puched her faster downwards at the machine.

The unbroken arm raised its armor plating to the sky in utter futility. In a brilliant flash of blue heat that nearly singed our clothes at 50 feet away, Yang exploded through the machines hull and blasted it into bits. There was a plume of flame that briefly clouded our vision before we saw Yang holding Torchwick by his smoldering collar. Her hair had died down to a blazing yellow, but still very much dangerous.

Torchwick was covered in bad burns all over his body and his clothes were tattered. After a brief coughing fit he wistled as Yang tightened her grip and pulled back her fist. A purple, brown, and white clad girl who couldn't have been more than 4 feet tall appeared behind Yang and stabbed her in the back. With Yang's aura unfocused on defense, the bladed tip of her umbrella slid straight through her skin.

Yang's hair lost all of its glowing luster as she dropped Torchwick and fell to the ground. "YANG!" Ruby screamed, immediatley entering Velocity and sprinting towards the short girl. Seeing this, the girl quickly tackled Torchwick and shattered them both into glass as Ruby's scythe was meant to hit them. She looked around wildly for them as a Bullhead rose off into the sky.

Ruby desperatley fired shots from Crescent Rose that careened off the plating of the ship. Once Ruby realized that she couldn't stop them she turned to her sister. Yang's eyes were closed and there was already a good amount of blood on the ground. Blake had tied Gambol Shroud's ribbon across the wound with Yang's scarf to stench the blood while Weiss pulled it taught. Ruby looked at her dying sister with tears in her eyes.


	21. Chapter 21

**Back again with some more of the story. I hope you like it. Leave a review or PM with any ideas you might have for the story. Enjoy.**

"You what!?" Blake said. I was sitting in the corner of the room sharpening my sword while the rest of them argued about the upcoming dance this weekend. Weiss and Ruby were trying and failing to convince Blake to come to the dance, increase morale and all that.

"We want you to go to the dance." Ruby said. Blake shook her head. The bags under her eyes were incredibly dark and she was slouched while she was sitting.

"That's ridiculous." Blake said. Wiess sighed.

"You haven't slept, youve hardly eaten, and your grades have been dropping steadily. We're worried about you." She said.

"You think I care about grades? People's lives are at stake." She half-yelled. Her expression hadn't changed.

"We know that. But thanks to you and... Yang, we also know that they're operating somewhere outside of Southeast Vale. Weiss also figured out that Vale is the only city that's been experiencing such a huge spike in dust robberies." Despite continuing on with her conversation, Ruby wasn't able to hide the brief pause and voice break as she said her sister's name. She was still very tender about Yang's near death experience.

Currently Yang was in the hospital under the name Jane Doe, and we had filed that she had needed to take some time off to deal with something at home. She had only woken up a few days ago, but she was still very weak and pale. Her aura had almost refused to regenerate until just yesterday, and it's been a slow crawl.

"But there are still unanswered questions." Blake argued.

"You won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open. All I want is for you to take it easy on _one_ night." Ruby said. Weiss nodded.

"It'll be fun. I've been planning and Yang has been texting me ideas whenever she can. If we're lucky she might even be able to make it." Weiss told Blake this and sent a sideways glance to Ruby, but there was no reaction on her part.

"She- What?" Blake asked, completely against the idea of Yang not getting the rest she needed.

"Look, Team CFVY's mission is lasting longer than expected, so were picking up where they left off." Ruby said.

"And after the dance, we'll return to our search, well rested and ready." Weiss finished. They both looked at Blake expectedly.

"I think Yang needs to rest, and that this is a colossal waste of time." With that said Blake left the room, leaving Weiss and Ruby with distraught faces.

"Well that went amazing." Weiss said and put her face in her hands. I turned over to them.

"Well, we could always just wait until she collapses. _"_ I offered. Ruby looked up at me with an appalled face.

"That's a horrible idea." She said. It was true. I more wanted to see how long she could keep going like this before then. It was already impressive. Six days and only a few hours of sleep. Most people would have collapsed by then, being more than halfway to the point where you _die_ of sleep deprivation.

"Why don't you try talking to her? So far you haven't said a word about this issue. It's almost like you don't care?" Weiss said. Ruby gave her a look while I thought it over.

"In case you forgot, my 'talks' are the sole reason that JNPR refuses to speak with any of us." I reminded Weiss.

"First of all, you've got to fix that at some point. Second, I said _talk,_ not _fight._ You know, with words, emotions." Weiss argued. I sighed.

"You know, emotions aren't really my thing. But why not, I'll give it a go. If nothing else I'll get a solid 'I told you so' out of the whole ordeal." I answered, picking up my sword and walking out of the room. If I jogged I could catch Blake before she got to the library. So I increased my pace. Barely two turns down she I caught her by the shoulders and steered her onto a different path.

"What the- Darren? What are you doing?" She asked, trying to get out of my grip.

"We're going to the training room. It's best to keep your instincts sharp." I told her. She jerked again but I kept a hold on, puching her in the direction I wanted. The training room was just a few doors down.

"They're sharp enough!" She argued, spinning around to face me. As she did I summoned a point on one finger and placed it in between her eyes, drawing a single drop of blood. She crossed her eyes as she saw it drip down. "Obviously not, now come on." I said, pointing at the heavy metal door. She grunted and turned around towards it, wiping the blood away.

"Fine, what are you going to try to teach me?" She said in a scathing voice.

"Nothing, you've already made it very clear that you don't want me to help you get better. I'm just going to watch you run a few Grimm simulations, then you can go and read, alright?" I said. She sighed again and drew her blades, entering the simulation room.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with." She said. We both walked into the hexagon clad room and closed the door.

"Randomize. Level 2 Encounter." I called out. The room shifted beneath our feet, throwing us into a dark forest with a hot temperature and thick moist air. Blake waited, her stance off from normal and her forehead already covered in sweat. The fight had yet to start.

I heard a growl and her bow twitched towards the sound, then in the other direction where nothing was. In just a few more seconds a simple Beowolf came at her from behind. She barely reacted in time, raising her blade and sheathe in defense. The Grimm's claws sparked against the metal as it pushed its assault on the cat faunas.

A few more clangs could be heard as I continued watching Blake be pushed on the defensive. There were dozens of openings that she did not take. Just a few seconds later she took a hit, her aura barely catching the claws against her arm. Three thin lines of blood were drawn as she jumped back. I heard another growl and pulled out my scroll to check her aura.

I watched the yellow aura hit orange as the second Beowolf teamed up on her and gained a hit. She was having immense trouble with the two and on the third hit she took I saw the edges of her body blur as she attempted to activate her semblance and failed. Orange turned to red as she fell and dropped her blade. A third beowolf creeped out of the forest unknown to her.

She struggled on the ground as she desperately tried to stop them with her remaining sheathe. She was probably wondering why the onslaught was still happening, and that was because before the room changed I had flipped the safety switch, making it so that the Grimm acted as primal as they would in a real battle, and would not stop unless the second person in the room said for it to happen.

"Just ask for help if you need it, but then we're gonna have to have a talk." I said calmly, sitting on a stump and watching her struggle. Blake took a gash in her leg and screamed as she rolled away from the third Grimm that snuck up on her. She looked for her sword desperatley, skipping over it in the medium length grass. She tried to jump backwards but her leg buckled and she succeeded in flopping on her back. Another scratched her in the cheek as she did this.

As the three Beowolves crowded around her and readied to kill her, I saw something in her eyes break, probably her resistance. "HELP!" She finally cried out.

Fast as I bullet I jumped over and ran the first wolf through, tossing his body into the chest of the second. I kicked and broke the leg of the third and stabbed him in the neck with a summoned dagger and tossed a knife of the same kind into the one that was getting up. As that one died the room grew brighter and a voice chimed 'Simulation Over'.

Blake was on the ground panting and staring at the ceiling I stood over her and stared her in the eyes. "Now, about the dance." I said, holding out my hand.

"The dance... Is a waste of time." She said, reaching for my hand, I pulled her up and smashed my head into hers as she fell back down. "OW!" She yelled.

"Yeah, yeah it is. Now, I could give you this whole speech full of emotion that I'm worried about you and that you need to rest for us, for Yang. The truth of it though, is that you are in the way. You can't kill a single beowolf in your condition, and you would have died had I not been there. You are _useless_ to our investigation like this." I told her.

She rubbed her forehead and I put out my hand. "Now about the dance." I said again. She looked at my hand again for a few seconds before grabbing it again. This time I didn't attack her. "You want answers, how about you eat, get some sleep, and maybe you'll actually be able to get some." I told her.

"I still think this dance is a waste of time." She told me. I pulled out my scroll. "Let me just text that to your deathbed partner who has spent all her time awake planning it." I said. Blake's eyes widened as she reached for my scroll.

"N-No! Okay, I''ll go." She relented. I closed my scroll and put it in my pocket. "Don't just go. Enjoy yourself. Make a night out of it. Maybe even make a memory or two. In this line of business, you never know how many of those nights you have left." I ordered. She sighed and nodded.

"Now come on. You need to go tell them you're going so they can shut up about it." I told Blake. She followed me out of the training room and back to the dorm.

* * *

 **Night of the Dance**

I made a tuxedo of sorts to wear to the dance after Ruby forced me to go as well. I wasn't dancing though. I was going to drink spiked punch and laugh at Ruby as she struggled to walk in heels. I was sitting in the corner doing just that until I heard Ruby squeal in surprise, then start arguing with worry. Weiss was joined in with her and Blake remained oblivious, dancing with Sun.

What had happened was Yang rolled into the dance room with a dress on and a leg cast, signed by a bunch of fake names. She had already convinced Ozpin that she had gotten injured helping her family member out when she was absent. I knew of course, but was asked to keep it on the down low to surprise them. While I watched them rejoice, I noticed two figures enter the room.

Emerald and Mercury walked side-by-side into the dance floor, but their teammate Cinder was nowhere to be seen. I kept an eye on the two of them during the next half hour or so. I didn't trust them or Cinder after our brief encounter. They could say exchange students all they wanted, but I knew better.

After pouring the entirety of a flask into my punch, I noticed a Ruby walking out into the courtyard. She was already standing outside, but something in her stride spelled interesting. Anything was better than this dance, so I followed her quietly. Her patch took her outside and away from the building, towards the CCT. I kept on her tail as I tried to figure out what she was following.

I heard her gasp as she looked to her left. We both saw the knocked out Atlesian Guard lying near the bushes. Ruby typed a button on her scroll and I heard the roar of a rocket. Her gear was on its way. I took this opportunity to slip into the bushes and wait. Ruby armed herself and went inside, I followed, keeping my visibility as tangible as possible in the dimly lit rooms.

There were more guards. Ruby checked a few pulses to confirm they were alive before heading to the elevator, the only other exit to the room. I walked a mere inch behind her, mimicking her footsteps. As she turned I slipped behind her and we rode upwards. The elevator opened and Ruby slowly walked out. I made sure no one else was looking before slipping behind a desk as she called out.

"Hello?" She asked, tripping on her heels a moment later. "Is anyone there?" I watched her walk deeper into the room. A woman in black clothes and a mask slowly rose out from behind a similar desk as mine.

"Excuse me, it isn't a masquerade party, so why don't you take off the-" Ruby was forced to defend herself from a sudden flurry of flaming glass projectiles that the woman had summoned. Ruby fired her weapon multiple times, but the woman bounced each high-caliber round off her palm before jumping back and firing three arrows of glass at Ruby that exploded. The elevator next to me beeped.

When Ruby turned, the woman fled out of an open window. I moved as a shadow across the room. The man in the elevator was Ironwood, who pulled out a pistol and shot at me as I was moving. My form was blurred enough to conceal my identity as I jumped from the window after the woman. I continued in my fluid shadow form.

The masked perpetrator made to head back to the ballroom before noticing she was being followed, and turned. I poured power into speed, quickly outpacing her and gaining. Still we made it to the edge of Beacon's Cliffs before I caught her, appearing and solidifying on front of her, the cliff at my back. "You again." She said, and summoned a glass bow to fire at me.

I raised my power high, not wanting to deal with a fight tonight. I blocked all three arrows with a shield of aura extended from my palm. The explosive force pushed me back maybe an inch. Out of the fire the woman sliced with her sword at me. I dodged sideways and caught the upswing that she attempted on me. The blade fell to ash in my hand.

I felt a prick on my neck as she attempted to stab me, but her blade shattered. She jumped backwards, waiting for a retaliation. Much faster than anyone should be able to react, I threw a knife at her mask. She recoiled in pain as the black material shattered and the face of Cinder looked at me. "Well then. Want to tell me what you just did up there, Cinder?" I asked.

"I can tell you everything and there would still be nothing you can do stop it." She snarled. I held up my hand. "Now what if I told you I don't want to stop it?" I asked. Her expression flickered in confusion. I took her silence as a que to continue. "I don't know what you did, but I can assume it's because you want to destroy the school, right?" I questioned.

"Why should I say anything?" She asked, but her posture was no longer combative.

"It's because we might have a common goal. I'm taking my time here, enjoying myself, but my end goal is to see this place full of dead bodies and burning buildings." I told her. I was taking a large chance here, but if things went wrong, I could always kill her.

"And just how would you plan to do that?" Cinder asked coyly, tilting her head and smiling.

"Brute force. I'll kill each and every one of them myself if I can." I said. Apparently that was a tad bit insane to her because she took a step back, but kept talking.

"Listen here, I don't know how strong you think you are, but you cannot kill this place alone." She said. I smiled, and revealed just a fraction of my true form. Immediately her expression changed to one of absolute terror, but she held up well. Most people would be running in fear or clawing their own eyes out, but she stood against it. Albeit there was a large amount of sweat dripping of her face and every muscle was taught like bridge wire as she held herself in place.

I forced my presence to recede until I seemed human again. "I think you're out of your weight class here, but I'll cut you a deal. Message me your plans, and I'll let you continue operating, but I want to hear everything." I told her, and tossed her my scroll to program my number. Once she tossed it back to me I turned to leave.

"Oh, and one more thing." I said, before rushing directly beside her and clawing needle like appendages from my fingers into her shoulder as I whispered into her ear. " ** _Never, cross me._** _"_ I said, and walked away slowly. She dropped to her knees as I licked the blood off my fingers. And awaited my messages.


	22. Chapter 22

**Back again it seems, and on a scheduled time. Hope you enjoy. Leave a review or PM if you have anything to say about or for the story. I am always looking for interesting powers Darren can use.**

"It's just not working for me Darren." Weiss said frustrated as white sparks flew formlessly from her palm. It had been a few days since the dance, and that was the night Weiss had requested me to teach her in runes.

The little stunt Ruby had pulled when she went after Cinder had blown over after questioning from both Ironwood and Ozpin. She told us what she could, and that they eventually believed her, though apprehensively. The footage in the room 'mysteriously, was corrupted beyond recognition.

Just a few hours after the following morning Cinder messaged my scroll with the intricate parts of her plan to destroy Beacon, who was in on it. When I asked who was overseeing her operations here, she assured me that I would never meet them, and it was best to leave well enough alone. I let the question drop, knowing full well I could torture the information out of her at my leisure.

"That's because you are trying to make them, Weiss." I told her. "Glyphs are different from Runes in the fact that you fuel, influence, and create them. In rune-work, the shapes are already set, and the force already around you. You can only be a conduit in this, and allow the natural flow of things to benefit you." I explained. A purple rune with a sparking body refined itself in my palm, it was force.

I aimed the rune towards Weiss and she held her hands up as she was pushed back a few inches before I dissipated it. "I did not create the rune, nor did I supply any aura to it. I called to it, and made myself a focus for force to act upon." I finished. She sighed. Of course it was hard for her. The entire understanding in her mind and body contradicted what I was telling her to do.

She had understood the basics of rune-work quite quickly. Weiss pulled in the information that there were four elements and three forces that were combined to create the first of the rudimentary runes. We would get to the other two elements and forces, as well as the dozens upon dozens of actions that she must learn to do.

Her memory helped her well because in order to create a rune, you had to have the image of what you wanted cemented in her mind. She could understand the thinking, but the doing was tough.

"Try again." I said to her. She closed her eyes once again and focused. "Do not reach to your aura. Reach around you. Understand force in its entirety. It is not a command or created aspect, but a constant. It will happen with or without you." I said, guiding her mind.

Weiss exhaled deeply as her body relaxed. When focusing I could see her aura dimming as it was no longer being used. Further it cooled until it hardened in the shape of her body just underneath the skin. A few white sparks flew from her palm as the heiress forced her mind to accept the different direction.

"Do not force it. Call for it. Ask force to work with you. Guide it as if it is a river forming a canyon, and you simply want to turn the direction." I kept up my guidance. Her fingers twitched as a brief outline of a circle flashed with a short shower in her outstretched hand.

Weiss' eyes scrunched as her mind fixated upon creating the rune. She was overcoming her habits fast for a beginner. The sparks flying from her hand got dimmer and more constant as the seconds ticked by. Finally, after a few minutes of intense concentration, the symbol of force solidified on her palm and the circle around it began to spin.

"More. Focus on me." I said. She opened her eyes and stared at me like a target as she ever-so-slowly moved her arm towards me. I felt a pressure on my chest that grew as the circle in her palm sped up in rotations, throwing sparks to the edges.

From two tangent points of the circle formed beams of light that reached back onto her wrist and formed another circle. She had accidentally create a runic reinforcement, something that strengthens the output of the rune so that the power moving through it will not shatter the symbol.

The inexperienced heiress pushed her arm further and unconsciously moved her hand in turn with the rune's rotation. The force moving towards me increased dramatically and I dug the front of my feet in to keep balance.

"That's perfect. Now dissipate it." I ordered her. She narrowed her eyes in concentration as the sparks around her hand flickered red a few times. "Hold on, I want to try something." She said.

I crossed my arms and watched. The runic reinforcement gained another level that formed a slate. I had taught her that when a reinforcement turned into a slate, it allowed for the proper additional runes to be added that could create combinations. The slates carved swirling fire runes and the entirety of her construct burned red.

She very nearly screamed when a huge plume of red fire exited the rune in a violent rush, creating a heat storm coming towards me. I was only a twenty feet away.

I had not expected her to even be able to create something that complicated on her first successful rune summon. Despite that I quickly summoned my own runes, combining force into push and burst, adding in the element of ice. A deep purple and blue construct formed around my hand.

A blue streak of energy impacted through the very fast firestorm and pushed towards her palm. I crushed the rune and activated the by-product. Just before the fire reached me the flames were pushed outwards and extinguished in every direction. Weiss grunted and held her hand which almost definitely had frostbite. Shards of floating ice were flittering around the room.

"Ow…" She simply said, trying to rub heat back into her palm. Her aura was slow to respond again to heal the frozen flesh after being pushed down so much. I walked over calmly.

"Now that was just stupid. You need to think about what your runes will do before you use them. If it wasn't me there you could have seriously hurt someone." I told her. Not that I would mind.

"I know! I… I'm sorry." She said. I was surprised. It seemed embarrassing herself quelled the normally feisty and prickly personality she had.

"Don't be sorry. Be better." I told her. She nodded and sighed, giving her hand one final squeeze.

"I think that's enough for today. It's mission assignment day, so Ruby probably wants to talk to us all about it. We should go." She said. I shrugged and walked to the door, her close behind. It was an almost silent walk down the hall until Weiss broke it.

"Are there any runes for healing?" She asked.

"Advanced energy and aura manipulation. Dangerous but plausible. You basically force someone's aura to work harder than it should, but you run the risk of obliterating or over-taxing their aura. I wouldn't try it." I told her.

"Oh. What about time dilation?" Weiss said.

"Of all the elements and powers that runes can focus, time is not one of them. " I explained.

"Summoning?"

I sighed and stopped. "Since when did you ask as many questions as Ruby?" I inquired.

"Since I didn't know anything about this." She answered, her hands on her hips. I sighed and continued walking.

"Animated constructs are too complicated for you right now. If you want to summon, I would work on using your glyphs to do it." I answered her again. She didn't get a chance to ask any more as we arrived at the door and walked in.

At the same time we ran into Yang you was carrying a container normally used to send scrolls (the old kind) or important documents. She waved to us and Weiss asked what she was carrying.

"It's a package from home. Ruby's been needing a cheer up after her meeting with Ironwood and Ozpin. Our dad messaged me about this not long ago so I went to pick it up. I don't know what it is yet." She explained, slipping a key into the lock and opening up. Ruby was sitting at the desk with a disassembled Crescent Rose so she could sharpen the blade. Blake was reading.

"Hey sis, look what III gooot." Yang said in a sing-song voice. I sat down onto the bed and started to review once again over Cinder's notes. Ruby freaked out for a bit over a package from home until I heard an odd thunk and saw a black roll fall to the floor out of the corner of my eye.

Normally this would not get my attention, but the roll of material jumped with a noise and I put my scroll down. Everyone else leaned over the roll as it popped open and a dog appeared on its feet. Blake jumped away and onto the bed while Ruby cheered.

"Zwie!" She yelled, likely the dog's name.

"Peculiar." I said in partial shock.

"Your father sent a dog!" Blake yelled.

"In the mail?!" Weiss questioned. Yang and Ruby simply acted as if this was a common occurrence and read a note. It said that the father of the two had to take care of the animal for a while as he was busy on a mission.

Weiss tried to act defiant and hate the dog, but she broke within seconds and fawned over it just like the two sisters. "Inside is all the food you should need." Yang read, and shook the can. About 50 cans fell out onto the floor.

 _"Oh now they're just fucking with me."_ I decided, and went back to reading my scroll. I heard a clunk and a can opener fell out, but I ignored it in favor of the announcement voice.

"Would all students please report to the amphitheater." It called out in Glynda's voice. I closed my messages and left the room to go see what all the noise was about. Yang, Weiss, and Blake followed me while Ruby grabbed a few last things.

When we got to the announcement room Glynda was standing above students from all four schools and waiting for the last of the people to trickle in. Ruby arrived behind us and placed a back-pack in the furniture area and we stood at attention.

"Before we begin, our Headmaster Ozpin has a few words to say." Glynda announced. She walked off and the old man took the microphone.

"Today we stand together, united. Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale. The four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end." He started, and that's where I stopped.

The old man was creating a dramatic and melancholic atmosphere by explaining how the Great War changed customs and tradition. Then he inspired us by explaining that it was up to huntresses and huntsman to keep these safe, while everyone else celebrated peace.

Everyone clapped and dispersed once he finished, and we decided to undertake a Search and Destroy mission in the South-East. This way we could get experience during the day and do our own investigating at night.

We very quickly ran into a problem when Ruby entered the team name into the keypad and we got beeped at, telling us that the mission was unavailable for first years. "Any other ideas?" Weiss asked.

Ruby went to speak but I beat her to it. "How about we, and follow me on this, go there anyway." I suggested.

"Well that's hardly amenable." Ozpin's voice said from behind me. I held my subtle surprise that he had sneaked up on us, even with all the noise of other teams.

"Unfortunately we determined the density of Grimm in the area to be too dangerous for first year students. It seems that particular region is very popular with the Grimm." He said. Ruby looked downcast as he continued.

"Now, it's certainly obvious that you will manage to make your way there anyways. I'm interested to see how you really managed to learn about a hideout in the South-East, and I'm even more curious as to why witnesses placed giant robots and explosions near a dance club not so long ago." Ozpin said with a very knowing voice. Yang slightly winced at the memory. Even now she had to be careful with her training to re-open the wound. She had almost been living off over-the-counter pain meds.

"I doubt I'll ever get the answers I'm looking for, so how about this. Instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just bend them? A first year team with an extra member should more than match up to second year." Ozpin said, and clicked a few buttons on his scroll. A loud beeping filled the screen in front of us before his obvious override let us have the mission.

"Thank you professor, we won't let you down." Ruby said.

"Do not thank me for this. Simply prepare yourself for the dangers that come outside of the protection of the kingdoms. Stay close to your huntsman at all times. He can and will send you back if he finds your abilities lacking." The headmaster finished advising and left us.

"This is great. We can finally get deep into the field to investigate." Ruby cheered.

"Yeah! And we get to fight some Grimm along the way." Yang added.

"Alright, let's get to our bullhead before the old man changes his mind." I told them. Weiss looked taken back by my comment.

"Old man!?" Weiss said while giving me a wide-eyed and judging look. I simply smiled as we left the building and went to the herd of Bullheads waiting.


	23. Chapter 23

**Long wait for a long chapter. I hope you enjoy. Notes about the chapter for readers at the bottom.**

We walked out to the makeshift airfield after a brief conversation with the returning Team CFVY. Their mission had taken much longer than expected due to a massive underestimation of the Grimm in the area.

Our hunter in charge was less than ideal. We got the hyper-active, manic, time-sensitive, Doctor/Professor Oobleck. He would apparently be leading us through this mission, and overseeing our progress. He also explained that instead of setting up a base of operations to hunt out of, we were to hack-and-slash our way through the miles of forgotten city.

Our flight was full of information about of destination, Mountain Glenn. This was also the site of the Mountain Glenn Project, a failed expansion of Vale that was overrun with Grimm after countless deaths and allocations of precious resources.

"The broken, half-born city is a dark reminder of our failure, and to keep us in line against trading lives for progress." Oobleck summed up. The project encountered numerous failures and setbacks, but was pushed further and further, the leader's sight clouded by the reward.

The flight was short and we touched down in a bleak and barren city park. No buildings were painted and the skeletal steel structures of many buildings were still shown. The builders had obviously left in a hurry the moment the efforts were disbanded. The wind blew through the ruins and created an ominous hum.

"Now, even though you are students, your first mission as hunters has begun. From this point on you must do exactly as I say. Do you understand?" He asked. I shrugged and the rest of them nodded, and Ruby's bag made a sound.

"Ruby! I thought you were told to leave all your belongings behind." Ooobleck said.

"You hadn't told us to listen to you yet… So I didn't." Ruby said. Despite the stupidity of the statement, the logic was unbreakable.

"You aren't wrong, but what could possibly be so important that you-" The professor was cut off as the bag made another sound and Zwei's head poked out of the top. Everyone was silent for a few moments before Oobleck spoke. His voice was dangerously even.

"Let me make sure I understand you. We are here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle, teeming with death and hostility, and you brought… A dog?" He asked. Ruby made to explain her case when Oobleck abruptly yelled, "Genius!"

He grabbed the corgi out of Ruby's bag and held him in the air, spouting all manners of information regarding the superior senses of dogs.

Blake interrupted Oobleck's rant to ask what we were doing. "Oh, straight to the point. I like it." He said.

"Now, as you know, this area has become a recent hotspot for Grimm activity, the most likely cause being… Grimm." He said. I stared silently while Ruby looked at us questioningly.

"Yes, Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately 100 yards away from us at this very moment." Oobleck stated as if he was telling us the weather.

"What!?" Weis yelled as we drew our weapons, but Oobleck stopped us.

"Wait. We are here to investigate the cause of the Grimm being here. One reason is that they are attracted to negative emotions. Such emotions as sadness, anger, and all manner of others are what our hidden group harboring ill intent. So we must wait, and track." He explained.

"So, how long will this take." Weiss asked.

"Well, it is hard to say for certain. Days, weeks, lone Grimm have even been known to wander without the pack for months- and there's the whole pack" Oobleck said, abruptly cutting off his own chain of thought.

"What?" Weiss asked, still confused as to what was happening. Some of the Beowolves in the pack perked their heads towards her voice.

"And now they've seen us." Oobleck stated calmly.

"What!?" Weiss half shouted, even more flustered than before. Oobleck didn't help matters by leaning in close to her and shouting his previous statement once again.

"Alright, so tracking is out of the question. What's the plan now?" Ruby asked. I answered for Oobleck.

"Rip and tear, obviously." I said.

"Precisely." Oobleck nodded, and gestured towards the charging herd. Yang jumped into the fray first, smashing through armored bone plates easily with her shot-gauntlets. Blake went wide and baited a small number with her clones. Weiss went the other direction and started combating the group with her glyphs.

Ruby jumped to the back of the herd, leaving me with a group of about five wolves. I drew my sword slowly as I waited for my prey to get closer. The mindless creatures didn't understand the key signatures of a trap and trampled right over the area I was focused on.

The entire group was launched into the air by momentarily summoned force runes. The moment my sword left it's sheathe I poured energy into the blade and sliced five times, each cleaving the bodies of the airborne wolves in two and raining their pieces onto the ground below.

A quick look let me know that the rest of my team were faring well against their opponents, and dispatched the creatures quickly. Once they were done we all returned to Oobleck for our next direction.

"We will continue through the ruins, following the Grimm to lead us towards our target." He told us, and so we did. We encountered many more groups of Grimm, none of which our guide helped fight. Through the short battles though, he asked each of us why we had decided to become hunters.

Yang did it because she was a thrill seeker. Weiss did it because it was her duty. Blake explained that there was too much wrong in the world to sit by and let it happen. When the battles were over, Oobleck had Weiss, Yang, and Blake set up camp and took Ruby and me to secure the perimeter.

During the walk around he sent Ruby even further ahead of us and waited until she was out of earshot. "So Darren, why is it that you decided to become a huntsman?" He asked me.

"Would an unhealthy obsession with killing Grimm satisfy you?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"It would fill in the blank on paper, but I know it is something more than that. I am almost certain that you've got ulterior motives for joining this line of work." He told me. My hand twitched, ready to summon any variety of weapon.

"Oh yeah? What would you think those motives to be?" I asked him, thinking of multiple ways to disguise his quick death at the hands of Grimm, or other parts of our environment. My choice to kill him or not depended on his answer.

He stopped me before talking.

"The best way to defeat an enemy is to gain their trust, and the best way to gain an enemy's trust is to fight for their cause. It is obvious in the kingdom these days that conspirators are working against the Vale from within the kingdom, perhaps even within the school itself." He said. I prepared energy to summon a clubbed weapon, planning already to explain his broken body by burying it under fallen rubble.

"And you suspect me? Why?" I asked him. His voice was quieter on his next bout of speech.

"I don't suspect anyone yet. I'm simply looking at the pieces that have been playing too many spaces, game changers. _You_ are in the class of students that have the possibility of being the most important players in history to date, and you are stronger than all of them. _You_ , along with Ruby, were the only students unaccounted for at the time of the CCT breach. And _you_ specifically took action to stay out of teams, almost as if you wanted all of that to fade into the background." The doctor rambled all of this out at me as I solidified my energy in the shape of a small studded cudgel hidden from his view.

"Maybe I'm just not a people person." I proposed. He narrowed his eyes further at me.

"I'm sure that's quite common in people from villages that don't exist." He said. I prepared to swing my weapon at him before Ruby's voice called out to us.

"Doctor Oobleck, you may want to come see this." She yelled. I sneered and gestured the older man in her direction.

"This is not over." He said, and began reluctantly jogging in the other direction. I dissipated my club.

I don't know how the coffee addicted old man was able to put pieces together that Ozpin himself wasn't, but it was a problem. He would need to die on this mission. While that might add another piece for another of the staff to put together, it was a risk that needed taking.

Oobleck and I arrived to see Ruby gazing at the horizon with her rifle aimed, and massive figures lumbering through the trees. Oobleck calmly lowered the barrel of her weapon and she looked at him.

"What are they?" She asked in wonder. "Why aren't they attacking?"

"Those are Goliaths, Ruby. They are older and more powerful than the Grimm you have fought. Unlike most Grimm, these are so superior that they have done the unthinkable for Grimm. They've learned. They know that in attacking us, they are likely to die." He said.

"Then why are they still so close to the city." She asked him.

"They are waiting. When you are virtually immortal as they are, simply waiting in a single location for decades, or even centuries, is child's play if in the end they will attain their goal." He explained. I could empathize with the colossal Grimm in the thick groves of trees. Waiting for a goal, a means to an end, is life for us.

Oobleck silently turned around and headed back to where the rest of our team. I could still feel him consciously being aware of my location around him. He didn't trust me, and for good reason. If it would be explainable I would slit his throat in his sleep tonight.

"Um, professor, I was wondering..." Ruby trailed off, and before she could regain the sentence, he cut her off.

"Questions for tomorrow Ruby. I think we've all had a long day. It is best to eat and get sleep for tomorrow's trek." He said.

"Oh… Okay." Ruby said disappointedly. Night almost fell before we arrived in our building. It was less broken down than the others and kept a large amount of wind out. There was also a small hole in the wall in which one could keep watch.

In the center of the room was a fire surrounded by four bedrolls. I had neglected to bring one, not exactly needing sleep. I sat myself at the edge of the hole and called first watch, listening without interest as they conversed.

The night started out mostly still with a few lesser Grimm wandering around on the grounds below us. I had told them I would eventually switch watches, but I actually had no intention of doing so. About halfway through the night Ruby woke up anyways, and I pretended to sleep while she aimed down at the streets below.

The time was 2 AM when Zwei barked quietly. Despite Ruby's protest he left the room and Ruby followed with him. I opened my eyes and watched the exit of the building where Ruby and Zwei ran out of. The dog had only ran out of the building to relieve himself, and barked happily when he was done. The sound echoed down the road.

"What was that?" A voice said. Ruby hurriedly grabbed the animal and hid around a corner. Two White Fang soldiers rounded a building with guns to investigate the sound. With Ruby hidden and Zwei no longer making noise, they quickly wrote it off as a stray Grimm. One of them mentioned returning to base.

I was very angry. Cinder had texted me a long list of their bases that they operated out of. There were a few near the South-East, but none had mentioned anywhere close to this. Cinder was hiding things from me. We would need to have a talk very soon.

Ruby began following the two soldiers down the street. I jumped from the window, allowing darkness to thin and lighten my form. I was barely discernable from the shadows around me as I landed on the ground without sound.

Following the clueless men was as easy as possible. Ruby hid around rubble and peeked around corners while I boldly strode mere feet from the faunus men. They did not speak even after a large hatch was opened and we descended stairs.

The place we entered perplexed me. It seemed the Mountain Glenn project was not the first of its kind. Under the streets were buildings far more dilapidated than those above. I did not get much time to admire the view though, as a large crash was heard near the rooftop we came out on. A burst of gentle moonlight opened up and down fell Ruby, a good 15 feet onto the metal rooftop.

The men beside me aimed their weapons, but I rushed forwards before they got the chance. Ruby must have felt the wind off me as an invisible force struck both her temples at once and she fell immediately unconscious.

I let my invisibility fall, adorning the nightmarish form that I had come to use frequently in my affairs outside the school. The men stepped back, aghast at the face in front of them. "Who are you!?" One of them yelled. I turned slowly and smiled.

"You two have some explaining to do." I told them before I threw Ruby's limp body over my shoulders. "Take me to whoever is running this place." I demanded, flashing my jagged teeth in a wide snarl.

"Why should we?" Asked the soldier on the left. As quick as I rushed Ruby I appeared in front of him. With my free arm I crushed his gun into jagged shards before picking him up by his throat. My fingernails extended just enough to draw blood.

"I do believe that smart men fear death. Are you a smart man?" I asked him, beginning to squeeze tighter. His partner stared in frozen fear while the man I held flailed, nodding and begging as much as he could.

"Y… Yes." He choked out. I dropped him like a sack and he crumpled to his knees.

"If the man overseeing this operation is not in front of me in the next five minutes, I will make you watch each other as I eat your beating hearts." I snarled, bringing the man up to his feet by his armor strap.

They began a fearful run as I followed, them checking only once to see if I was still behind them. Within a few rounded hallways I was show a door. "Roman's in there." They told me.

"Is he now? Well, I thank you for the service. Do stay out of my way, I can't guarantee your continued life if we cross again." I told the two of them. They ran without a second thought, likely trying to put at least a mile between me and them.

With Ruby still over my shoulder I shoved the door open to see Roman standing on train tracks, facing a few more faunus soldiers. On reflex or fear he threw his cane upwards and fired. I held my hand towards it and summoned a force rune.

The flare slowed as if in water and slowly fizzled out a foot from my palm as Roman watched with him mouth agape. "Startle you?" I asked. He lowered his cane and tossed his cigar down, stamping it into the stone floor.

"Why you… Who the hell are you? Are you the one that's got Cinder on edge the past few days?" He asked.

"Yes, I suppose that's me. Now, as a show of good faith…" I tossed Ruby's limp body at him and he shouldered the impact. "Red?" He muttered. The impact must have jarred Ruby awake because her eyes opened to see his face and she immediately lashed out at him.

"Nice to see your brain still functions." He said, tossing her a few feet away onto the floor. She slid on her back while he laughed. "Wow. You are so much more manageable without that oversized gardening tool."

Ruby made to get up and rush him but stopped when she saw me. I knew I was a nightmarish sight to behold, but the childlike fear in her eyes was delicious, even more so when she thinly veiled it with a fake courage.

"Who… What are you?" She stuttered out, sitting on the ground still. I smiled a crooked smile.

"Death incarnate. Pleased to meet you." I spoke. She winced while watching my face.

"That uh… That doesn't look like a mask." She said. I knew she was talking about how I told her the murderer of the Atlesian troops wore a hellish mask.

"Why no, I'm sure it doesn't. That's most likely because it isn't." I said to her, gnashing my teeth together for effect. She yelped and squirmed backwards.

"Alright Red, listen here. How'd you find this place?" Roman asked, the barrel of his can pressed against her throat. A quiet explosion rumbled the ground a distance away and Roman growled. "Perry, go take care of that." He ordered, and turned his sights back on Ruby.

"Answer the question Red!" He yelled. A much larger explosion shook the ground violently and swayed Roman's aim. Ruby used the opportunity and briefly entered velocity to kick him and begin running. Roman fell next to me and Ruby gained twenty feet of distance.

"You, scary man." He said and I turned to him with malice in my eyes. "Kill her… Please?" He half ordered. I smiled lightly and took off after her. Behind me I heard him tell the last soldier to start the train.

About halfway to Ruby I saw the sight of the explosion. Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Oobleck were running with Zwei towards our location. Ruby saw them and sprinted faster. They had a slight reuniting where Ruby asked where Darren was.

"I don't know. He wasn't there when Zwei woke us up." Yang said.

"Um, I think we've got bigger problems than that." Said Weiss, pointing to me. I drew my sword, a near clone of the original except with serrations, bandages wrapped randomly, and dried blood.

"Now, you've got two decisions." I told them.

"W-What decisions are those?" Ruby asked.

"Well, you could try to fight me all together and maybe bring in the killer of those poor, poor soldiers." I stated, waving my sword towards them. "OR, you could stop whatever it is that Roman is trying to do here. If you go after him I won't follow you, but it'll be some time before you get this chance again." I finished up.

They looked back and forth to each other nervously before Oobleck stepped up. "I chose both." He stated boldly.

"How?" Was my simple question.

"Girls, I need you to be strong and stop that man. I will stop this monster." He said. Ruby grabbed his sleeve.

"No professor. You… You'll die. I don't know how I know but I do!" She pleaded. Tears were starting to stream down her face. Oobleck set his hand on hers.

"Ruby, A Huntsman's title isn't just to stop Grimm, but any threat to the kingdoms. That means human, Grimm, or otherwise. Right now, _he_ is the threat." He said.

"I can't say I will catch up with you because I don't know if I will. But I do know that you can stop this from happening. Stop Roman, and maybe I can stop this threat.

Ruby sobbed for a quick second as the first life or death decision in her existence hit her like a train. Stop the train and maybe save dozens, or possibly trade them all for just his life. She was innocent, but her inner scale told her what she needed to do.

"Ok." She said, and turned to her team. "Let's do this." She ordered, and the group of four ran off to catch the train with Zwei. The professor stayed stoic and stared me down.

"I thought you'd be stronger. After all, suicide is the coward's way out." I told him. He only grinned.

"So what if I am the sacrifice? I still might get the chance to stop you." He said.

"Well, if you are going to die, I suppose I should let you know that you are right. All of it. I'm playing all the sides, and I'm much more powerful than I've made out to be." I told him. He nodded, and extended his flask into a large club.

"Then this will only be enjoyable." He said, and splashed a final drink of coffee into his mouth before rushing me. He started by stepping so hard the ground cracked and he swung his weapon twice on the way to me.

I blocked the combined might of two fireballs and his hardest swing with my sword. I had no reasons to hold back this time, and I bordered on my first limiter. Needless to say, I toyed with him for the large portion of the fight.

Knowing I needed to eventually catch the train, I made the fight quick. Each time the old doctor attempted to strike me I parried him away and added another cut to his body. Soon he was breathing ragged and bloody breaths on his knees.

"Come on old man. I know you're still holding back. A fully realized huntsman would put up much better of a fight than this." I stated. He laughed.

"I do suppose that a battle of attrition is out of the question. Fine then. Let's get serious." Oobleck growled the last line at me as his whole body flashed in a green glow. The next time I struck him he was faster, and blocked it.

I smiled a toothy grin at him and kept striking. Amazingly the man kept up with me, blocking all my attacks and only glowing brighter. After a few moments when it seemed his green aura was now white, he triggered something in his weapon.

The green metal shot back across his forearm and anchored there, and the drinking cup formed a large dull stake. Steam began boiling off the weapon and his body as the old man prepared something.

"A last ditch effort then. My favorite." I said. I splayed my arms and left myself wide open for his attack, taunting him until the end. With a yell he rushed a final time, throwing a full body punch with his weaponized arm.

Like a steam cannon the weapon went off and extended, strengthening the blow. I felt it. I felt my breastbone crack on impact and screamed as his body went limp while standing. His glow was gone, all the energy he accumulated pushed into his attack.

" _That_ hurt old man." I snarled, focusing energy to heal the break. He only chuckled.

"I'd hoped it would kill you, but I guess my hope was misplaced. Why don't you just kill me?" He said. You could hear in his voice that there was no more fight left in him. So I answered him.

"I'd cut off your head, but I do so want them to have an open casket funeral. It makes the sadness sweeter." I said, leaning in. He only laughed. While he was nothing compared to me, I still had respect a proper fighter.

"Valliant to the end." I muttered at him as he fell forwards. I could feel his life leave the man as I placed my hand on him and guided his soul away myself. The train had left the station some time ago, but these tracks must go for a long distance.

I shed my disguise and began running, pouring any power I had in strength and turning it to speed. Ten mph, 25, 50, 100. The wind was blistering in my ears as I accelerated to a speed more than double what a train carrying no cargo could match. My footsteps dug into the dirt behind me.

While running a thunderous boom sounded some distance in front of me. In my immense speed and reaction time, I dodged the train car falling from the ceiling as well as the influx of Grimm that fell with it. Daylight shown through the hole in the ground. I kept running.

There were two more booms and mosh pits that I wove my way through, and I realized what the train was doing. The negative emotions off all the White Fang on board would draw Grimm, and they were opening holes up for them. This was a massive lure.

Ingenious.

I jumped onto a train car in time to feel heat emanating from the floor and various booms coming from it. A peek through the hole in the ceiling showed Yang with blue eyes dominating the girl who originally stabbed her. Good for Yang.

Looking in front of me I saw white flecks of Weiss glyphs and runes coming from windows and holes in the cart. Blake had also just jumped through her own hatch. I watched Weiss for a brief second, fighting and beating a man with a large chainsaw.

Further still I saw Ruby and Zwei struggling against a small horde of White Fang soldiers and mech-suits. They were being pushed back fast. I suppose after killing an idol of hers, some help _might_ be appreciated, so I jumped into the fray.

 **For anyone wondering why it was Oobleck that first suspected Darren for foul play, here's why. Ozpin is already stressed out about his job and Death's message, too much so to focus entirely on the students. Glynda works very close with him, so she is obviously caught up with how he is handling things, though she is mad at Darren about Pyrrha. Port lives in his own little world, so I chose Oobleck.**


	24. Chapter 24

The train was still moving fast and the Grimm were still running with us. I ignored both of these as I blasted past Ruby and into a few stray soldiers. She gasped behind me in surprise as I attacked the men. The first attempted to swing his gun at me, but I blocked and swung my sword into his legs. He fell off the train as I reeled onto the other two who were shooting at me.

Raising my arm against my eyes I channeled energy into the point of my sword. Purple fire burst and pushed the two off the edge of the train as well, most likely going to fall prey to the stampeding Grimm.

"Darren, where were you!?" Ruby yelled, her eyes still red from crying. You could honestly hear the sound in her voice that she partially blamed me for not being there, especially because I could have been strong enough to stop the 'monster'.

"Is Oobleck alright?" She asked me next before I could respond. I narrowed my eyes. "Explanations later, fighting now." I told her, and rolled out of the way as a hydraulics fueled punch landed on my previous position. I spun and slashed at the supporting steel, but this model must have been reinforced. Instead of the clean cut I was expecting on the ankle my blade only deeply scratched into some armor plating. Another mech began to close in on us with the first.

Ruby dodged backwards as a loud round sounded and blasted through part of the car roof. The metal was red around the edges signaling a powerful red dust round. "Don't get hit." She said, and charged in towards the gun arm. Before she could complete any movement of severing the second mech grazed a punch that still threw her onto her back.

"I can distract one, you handle the second." I told her. She was looking mad, but also worried. "What about number 3?" She said, and called a third approaching mech.

"I'll figure things out. Now go!" I yelled out, speeding past the first that struck the ground as I passed. Ruby went after the arm embedded into the metal roof as I forcefully uppercut the first mech with my sword, hoping to damage the cockpit.

My blade shattered some of the glass and the reflective surface, showing me the masked pilot. Still in the air from my rising slash I used a quick burst of force and fire to launched a ball of heat into the glass. The mech recoiled backwards as the glass melted and shattered fully. The pilot was mostly unscathed and raised its gun in panic, firing a shot.

I deflected the round into one of the walls, ignoring the jarring that it gave my arm. Trying for another slash proved near useless as now the pilot was guarding himself entirely. I decided to pull a Weiss, summoning multiple reflective glyphs around us and jumping into one. The faunus operator was unable to follow the randomized movements of my jumps and I stabbed him in the chest, throwing his body overboard before Ruby could see that I brutally murdered a man.

In my haste to conserve my identity I forgot the second mech, and received a flaming round to my chest. Embers flickered off my burned clothes as I almost lost my grip on the metal frame. Now more angered than in pain, I grabbed a joystick and raised the left arm, the cannon arm. One press of a button echoed the loud report I had hoped for, and severed the shoulder mechanism of his gun. With a forceful kick I shoved the empty machine off the train.

To my chagrin I noticed even more mechs rising up from a car in front of us. At least a dozen. I felt a hand on my shoulder that was at a high temperature and noticed Yang standing next to me. A few cuts and bruises, but she had one. Blake was behind her with Weiss leaning on her. She was drained, but not injured. Ruby walked to my side. "What do we do now?" She asked.

"I don't think we do anything." Blake said, pointing at the mechs leaving the train, including the one-armed mech we were about to finish.

I saw why. We were nearing the end of how far this tunnel was dug. I looked at Weiss intensely. "Ice, now. ALL OF IT!" I yelled. I could survive this no problem, but there was a good chance they would die without protection. Despite her tiredness Weiss jumped to the center of us and flared out a complicated Glyph that raised a thick ice dome around us. I supplied some of my own energy, forcing the temperature lower and hardening the ice.

I could hear everyone take a breath and hold it as they braced themselves for impact. A very hard impact. A noise much louder than any cannon sounded around us as the head of the train struck the wall. The ice held at that point, but then explosions went off as we struck the same wall, shattering the ice and any normal person's eardrums. As it was mine were ringing as I waited for the world to stop shaking.

After a loud minute or so rubble began to settle and my eyes opened. I heard fain sirens and yelling for help. Around me the rest of the team seemed to be gathering their consciousness and sat we heard growling. We were on the edge of a giant crater that had opened up dead in the center of downtown Vale. The growling got louder with rumbling, and a King Taijitu sprouted out of the tunnel with many lesser creatures following.

Each of the girls with operational scrolls pressed the distress signal on their screens before rising. I did the same and pushed the rubble off my shoulders. "What's the plan now, Ruby?" Blake asked.

Ruby looked at us with a frantic expression. Between the crash, losing somebody, and now the threat to civilians, she was nearing her wits end. "Get the people, wait, cover the, no... Kill the Grimm, fast." She said, shooting off with her scythe towards a Beowolf chasing down a mother with a stroller. With our orders given we each dashed off to a corner of the ruin.

My corner just so happened to have the city's biggest snake in it, so I attacked headfirst. When the black head made to bite me I sliced, taking a foot of thick tongue and a large fang. Behind the brother rose and struck while I was in the air. With no ground to push off of i was smashed into the ground by the head. It roared for assistance and I suddenly found myself being dug deeper into the ground by four snake heads bashing me repeatedly through the park foundation.

As one of the heads reared back I summoned a force rune in front of me. The one-ton head smashed against it a foot away from my body, shaking the deep chasm around me. On the next strike I raised my sword, embedding it into one of the eyes. It took the blade with it, and I was still cornered. The strikes didn't hurt as much as the golem Grimm did, but they were a close second.

Another strike barreled into me and my skin pierced, the rare venom of a King Taijitu flowed into my shoulder and lit that arm on fire. Despite the pain I raised the other with another force rune combined with fire and lightning. A few seconds burst of this was enough to drive the heads away was just long enough for me to get on me feet and jump out of the hole.

A head struck at me and I jumped off its head, blasting another lightning bolt at the next aerial assault. Then, like any trusty weapon, my sword came back to me with the present of a head to kill. When it chomped at me I kicked off the gnashed teeth and grabbed my sword, wrenching it out and spraying black blood over the both of us. It screamed and we began to fall. I made sure to land so that my sword drove through the center of the head and I twisted.

Three heads to go, and my scroll vibrated. I grabbed it with my free hand and jumped over the first head, digging into the neck. When I answered the call I heard Ozpin's voice over the line. "Thank the gods you picked up. Listen! There are currently no hunter teams available. You _must_ hold them back until Atlesian forces arrive to evac the civilians." Ozpin explained to me.

Another typical shit-show it seemed. I grunted affirmation and hung up, letting go of the snake's neck and slicing a power-filed line of energy towards the neck. This one had some tougher scales and the cut only made it halfway through the skin. A thin line of black ichor stood out against the white armor plating. I slashed twice more, once to get through the skin, and once to get into the meat. Once past the scales the impact tore through the flesh and the spine, killing it.

Once I hit the ground again I took in the situation. Ruby and Weiss were defending a group of people that had taken shelter inside of a shop. Blake was running around culling any Beowolves and moving along stray citizens. Yang stood at the precipice of the hole and blasted backwards any larger Grimm that dared to climb up.

The snakes in front of me screamed, bringing my attention back to them. The two struck one after the other. I dodged the first and stabbed upwards against the second. The force pushed me through some bricks and onto my back, but the blade had penetrated through the base of the jaw and hooked through the bone. I smiled and forced lightning through the blade. With a scream and a dying jerk I was once again wrenched from my weapon and into the waiting jaws of the final snake.

I went spread eagle in effort to not get swallowed. What followed was not much better as I ended up feet on the tongue of the serpent and hands upwards, embedded into the fangs. Both arms began to feel as if on fire as I was injected with venom once again. I bent my knees slowly and then jumped hard. The force cracked the jaw of the snake open and it let me go. Summoning shovel-like claws onto my hands I attacked the head.

My strikes did not end until there was a fair bit of brain matter under my nails and the head stopped shrieking. Seeing the final snake dead and all of the civilians in cover Ruby called a round up at the storefront. I walked over while Blake and Yang caught up. The crater had stopped belching up Grimm for the next few seconds.

"Problem check." Ruby called out.

"Out of ice and almost fire." Weiss said.

"Aura's low." Said Blake.

"Out of ammo." Blake told us.

"No reinforcements." I informed them. Ruby stared at me wide eyed and even more broken than before. Things were on a downhill slope and moving fast.

"Well who _is_ coming?" Weiss asked me. I told them quickly about the Atlesian soldiers and our objective to hold off or kill all the Grimm. We were all silent after that until multiple roars and heavy footsteps started approaching from the tunnels.

"I have a plan." Ruby said at last. We made for her to continue. "We jump in." Ruby said. I was certain that she'd finally cracked.

"What!?" Weiss exclaimed. Ruby held up her hands in defense.

"We jump in and seal up the hole with earth dust." Ruby said quickly.

"That's suicide!" Weiss yelled again. The pounding steps got closer. "I know. But what else can we do?" Ruby argued.

Nobody offered up a better solution and we silently agreed that we would have to do that. I sighed and grabbed my sword out from under the jaw of the snake. Of the five of us I was the first to jump into the hole. Ruby, Blake, and Yang followed. Weiss was last and began casting a large glyph over the hole to fill it with created rock.

A horde of Grimm was about thirty seconds from colliding with us when Ruby issued the final commands. "We aren't here to defend or control. We're here to kill, so don't hold back. Weiss, use all the dust you have. Blake, no ammo conservations. Yang, Berserker. Darren, you're on the front lines with Yang. I'll be weaving in between to cut them down before they hit the others.

A role-call of agreement sounded before Ruby grunted and her eyes lit up along with her aura. She charged with such speed that the wooden track beam she placed her foot on cracked from the force. Yang clashed her fists together and lit up the area around us with her bright white hair and glowing blue eyes. Weiss and Blake took a few steps away in order to not get singed from the radiating waves of heat.

I took off with her while gunshots reported in the tunnel as Blake picked off the heads in the back of the group. Ruby weaved in and out as a blur of petals while swaths of wolves were cut down. She was quite vicious when she used her weapon and Velocity together.

Yang impacted the horde head on and put all she could into the first punch to send a rain of bodies away. Each blow after that would thoroughly turn the upper half of the Grimm's body into broken charcoal. I smiled at the utter slaughter and began slicing wildly, the energy off the blade leaping 10 feet away from me and ripping down the numbers. Any that got by us was taken down in the docens by arcing lightning.

Despite all of this assault power we were still being overwhelmed. Ruby slowed down from the thicker numbers and Yang took hits. Blake and Weiss were forced to deal with increasingly more Grimm that broke through. Not needing wanting else to die unless I needed them to, I took matters into my own hands.

From within me I pulled out a power that I had not showcased publicly since initiation day, and my body became a blur. Now matching Ruby in speed I began rapidly attacking the edge of the front line, making accelerated passes that kept the horde at bay. The rest needed a break though, and Ruby called out.

"Yang, All or Nothing!" She yelled. This was something she had come up specifically for Yang's semblance. Yang hopped back and stood in a stance she hadn't used before. Almost instantaneously her skin began glowing a deep blue while her hair raised up into the air with increasing blue streaks. Her eyes darkened from a blue to a deeper color that was almost purple, but held death in them.

After a few more seconds Yang yelled at me to get back as she ran forwards with the ground igniting and metal tracks glowing red from her heat, and punched the first Grimm she came in contact with. It was immediately turned into ash with a blinding flash of blue plasma, but the energy carried forwards across the entirety of the horde. The first 50-100 of them were shattered into burning bits while the dozens upon dozens behind them were either killed of broken by the impact. Ruby had jumped briefly to the ceiling in order to avoid the shockwave.

One look at Yang would have told you that the attack took its toll. Her leading hand was burnt badly and her skin was covered in sweat. Her hair was dull and there wasn't an ounce of aura left in her kneeling body as she struggled for oxygen. It wasn't in vain though as a solid 90% of the remaining horde was destroyed and the remaining ones were disoriented and easily cut down by Ruby and I.

When we returned to the rest of the group Ruby almost grabbed Yang to help her to her feet, but instead stuck out Crescent Rose's handle after feeling the residual heat on Yang's skin. "Did we do it?" She asked in a daze.

"We sure did. Darren, could you open the hole?" Ruby asked, hoping to leave before more Grimm showed up from the sound of Yang's attack. I nodded and cast a new rune onto the surface of the rock. The stone withered away in dust that rained down until sunlight shone through. There was authoritative yelling above and after a few moments a rope ladder with white metal rungs was lowered through the opening.

"Guess the soldiers showed up." Ruby said. A head appeared in the hole and called down to us.

"Anyone of you injured, because we can get a med evac down here in minutes?" He asked. After making sure Ruby yelled up that none of us were injured and we all started ascending the ladder. The soldier that called down the hole had left, replaced by a man with stars on his shoulders, a general. He shook each of our hands as we exited the hole, ignoring how hot Yang's skin probably was.

"We were informed of the situation and responded as fast as we could. All of you, even if in training, have definitely earned your stripes in my book. You've done a great service to your kingdom today." He told all of us. Ruby rubbed the back of her neck and responded.

"We were just, you know, doing our job." She answered. The general smirked as he walked away. "Modesty. How about that."

A few moments after he left another man in a different uniform jogged up to us. "There's a Bullhead waiting to take you back to Beacon. One of your instructors is on board and is waiting to question the five of you on what happened in those tunnels." He told us and pointed at an airship with roaring engines. Inside the passenger area we saw Ozpin waiting patiently.

Ruby thanked him and we slowly got on board. Yang basically passed out in the chair while Blake and Weiss left the questioning to us. Ozpin was about to speak but Ruby beat him to it. "Why weren't there any reinforcements? There are a bunch of teams that should have been able to make it. JNPR, CFVY, SSSN, that one group with that Fall girl. Where were all of them? Not to mention the other Hunters." She asked.

"You are aware that there were multiple detonations, correct?" He asked her. She nodded.

"Well, then it will make sense to tell you that we were spread out as those tunnels had multiple openings in the city. A different team each aided by one of our instructors was stationed at each opening, and Glynda is currently making rounds to repair the damages. As for Team JNPR, they were current;y held back because Ms Nikos is in the infirmary." Ozpin explained. Ruby slumped backwards in her chair once her question was answered. She did make to ask about Pyrrha, but he told her it would be better explained by her team.

"Now, I've got a few things to get sorted out, so first things first, where is Doctor Oobleck?" Ozpin asked. The mention of his name looked quite like it had stabbed Ruby with the sound of it. "He... He didn't make it." She told him.

Ozpin was the one to slump backwards in his seat this time, his own eyes wide. He then shook his head and his professional look returned. It pleased me that I had apparently killed a close friend of his. "I didn't take him to be one that would fall prey to Grimm." He said. Ruby shook her head.

"He didn't. It was that... The _thing_ that murdered the Atlesian squad in the woods. He stayed behind to hold him off while we stopped the train. He was at the station." Ruby informed him. He nodded solemnly.

"I'll have a recovery team sent down, and we'll give him our respects. Let's force our way through the rest of the event for now, and then you and your team can rest." Ozpin said. Ruby and I nodded. For the rest of the flight we recalled a detailed event map of the whole situation, and I took care not to explain any of the parts that I 'wasn't there' for.

I was also forced to explain where I was when the rest of the team jumped down to help Ruby. My story was that I was chasing down a small pack of Grimm because I could not sleep. Eventually I heard explosions and found the hole that they jumped down. By the time I reached the station the train had already left and I followed the car detonations.

Ozpin was silent for the almost all of our story, not even bothering to write anything down during the routine parts of the mission. Only after night had fallen did he begin to take any interest. The old man seemed to take great interest as we explained Ruby and Yang's newfound limits with their powers. The most involved he became was when we spoke of the 'man' that killed Oobleck. He got every physical and mental detail possible out of that form.

After we reached the point where the soldiers lowered the ladder Ozpin stopped us and slipped the notebook inside of his outer coat. "I thank you for the detailed accounting of the events. We seem to be about to land, so I will leave the five of you alone until the funeral is held. Oobleck wanted a pyre, and we'll make it glorious." Ozpin said, the last part quietly. He slid open the door and seated himself next to the pilot, leaving us to ourselves.

I glanced over to Ruby, expecting tears or at least sadness, but she instead had a cold and faraway stare straight into the wall in front of us. I didn't comment on it and simply waited for landing. I could almost feel the rest of the team gauging Ruby's reaction as she was the most innocent and childlike of us all. The most likely to be heavily affected by death.

The ship landed and we unloaded from the ship. Yang leaned on me without my say in the matter and I was forced to guide her to the dorms. Ruby remained silent and Yang shot her glances every so often, wishing she had the energy to comfort her. Weiss and Blake didn't say anything different as well. We entered the room and Yang collapsed on the bunk.

Ruby sat at the desk with her music and Weiss was the first to go and shower. That left me and Blake alone in the room. Against her usual ritual of picking up a book and detaching from the world, Blake sat on the bunk in front of me and stared at me. She seemed to be figuring out the words to say something to me, so I waited.

"I want you to train me." She pushed out. Her voice was forceful and clear. I looked up at her.

"So what's changed your mind?" I asked.

"Oobleck did. Well.. Mostly Oobleck, but it was something that monster said to us. He was right. Oobleck had no hope, but even with all of us fighting against him, I don't think we could have won, even with you. So I need to get stronger, strong enough so that maybe together we'll have a chance against something like that. After seeing just how much more Yang and Ruby are able to do, it makes no sense not to." She went quiet.

"You just don't want anyone else to die around Ruby. That's it, isn't it?" I asked. Blake nodded.

"It's not that she's bad at combat, but in terms of dealing with the hardships of battle, she's still a child. In her mind the light always beats the dark, but she doesn't know what to do if the dark wins. But maybe I don't want her to deal with it, maybe an innocence like her should be preserved." Blake argued her case.

"People are going to die Blake, you can't stop all of it. And truth be told I wouldn't even know where to start with your semblance. Your instincts are true, your form is perfect, and you don't leave any openings." I trailed off as I explained this to her, but I was really testing her resolve.

"But I could be better. I've never once thought I was as good as I could get, or that I didn't have flaws I needed to work through. I know that you could teach me to be stronger in more ways than just my semblance." She told me. I nodded and looked at her.

"Flaws, huh? Yeah you've got a few. The first is your issue with courage." I blatantly said. She made to argue but I continued first. "Before even knowing if we were going to criticize or hurt you, you ran the second we found out you were in the White Fang, and I don't fully believe you would have come back if we hadn't found you. And even now you still wear the damn bow." I told her.

"You don't know if people in the school will be okay with it. I _enjoy_ not getting the aggressive sideways glances walking down the streets or through the halls." She argued.

"Yeah, well people are going to. If you hide from it you'll never learn to deal. You are literally living a lie right now because you're too afraid to embrace the truth, despite watching everyone around you live it."

"But-" Blake tried to defend herself and I held up my hand.

"You want me to train you, to make you better? Lose the bow." I told her coldly. Blake looked at the floor and I turned away from her. A few tense seconds passed and I heard her voice.

"Okay." She quietly said without looking up. I heard the rustle of fabric as the untied it. I glanced up as she finished and tossed the article of cloth at me. I caught it in my hand and focused. The durable fabric smoldered for just a moment until it caught all at once. Blake almost reached out for it as I let go and the scraps of material dissipated into embers.

"We start tomorrow." I told her, and rolled over to sleep.


	25. Chapter 25

**So, long wait. Not as long as a chapter as you really deserve for the wait. A new one will be out soon. I hope you all had a decent holiday.**

I woke up from my sleep after a few hours, just in time for the school-wide dinner in the cafeteria. Unlike our usual meals, it was quiet. Ruby did not start conversation like she normally did. JNPR was not even in the cafeteria. We ate the provided tasteless meal in silence until we were about to put our plates away.

"Maybe we should check on JNPR." Ruby said to nobody in particular. Ozpin never did explain why JNPR was at the infirmary, or who was hurt. It did peak my curiosity. When the other three members declared it a good idea, I actively agreed as well. After Ruby grabbed a few plates of food and tied them into a box stack we left for the medical wing.

The wing was like a small hospital in the fact that there was a desk and waiting area that was empty. The nurse behind the desk asked who we were here for. "Team JNPR is supposed to be in here, we're just trying to figure out what went wrong, who's hurt and all." Ruby said to the nurse. She gave us a room key and a number to follow as well as a few directions.

"Enter carefully if you can. Pyrrha's in a bit of a delicate state." She told us. Blake glared into the back of my head as we walked down the halls. Just a corner away from the room I stopped.

"You should probably go on ahead of me. They probably want to kill me if Pyrrha is still being affected this heavily by our fight. I'll wait and come in after you four are done." I told them. They seemed like they wanted to argue, but at the same time knew I was right. So they rounded the corner and I waited until the second they entered the room moved as close to the door as I could to listen in. No sense going in blind, and I wanted to know how this was still a problem.

"What are you four doing here?" Jaune asked with a bit of surprise, and a bit more anger.

"We uh, we brought some food for you. None of us saw you at dinner." Ruby said. The foam boxes squeaked as they were placed on the ground.

"What happened to her?" I heard Blake ask. There was a moment before answering in which it was quiet enough to hear the systems monitoring her vitals. There was a steady heartbeat that seemed a hair too slow, suggesting sedation

"According to the nurse, severe insomnia, atrophy from malnutrition, damage from combat, an aura that almost refuses to regenerate, and minor psychosis." Ren told them.

"It's from Darren, isn't it?" Ruby asked in an apologetic voice. There was another silence in which I could only assume one of them nodded in response.

"But how? She seemed fine for so long, and that was months ago." Weiss said. I heard a sigh. Jaune spoke next with a sadness in his voice that completely drowned his anger.

"I don't think she was ever fine, I just think she got better at hiding it from us." He said. Another brief period of silence. On one hand it made me happy that such closely knit friends were all suffering because of me, but on the other hand it disappointed me. I had gotten info about the Champion of Mistral, and I honestly expected more.

"Is there anything we can do?" Ruby asked. A huff of breath before Jaune spoke next.

"Where's Darren?" Jaune asked. I heard a well-hidden edge in his voice.

"He's outside in the hall, saying you probably wanted to talk to him alone." Yang explained.

"Well he was right. Thanks for the food, but it's time your four left. Send him in on your way out." Jaune ordered. The sound of a couple different excuses started to come out of Ruby's mouth before she resigned herself and started walking. Before they exited the room I heard Jaune tell them something.

"We are sorry we weren't there to help you with the Grimm." Jaune said. They didn't give a response and left to the door.

I jumped back around the corner as the door opened and they walked out. Once they reached me Ruby pushed the keycard into my hand.

"They want to talk to you. Try not to make anything worse, okay?" Ruby asked of me. I nodded silently and they left to go back to the dorms. I walked round the corner once again and knocked on the door, inserting the keycard at the same time. In my mind I was ready for a fist to come flying through the opening as soon as the lock clicked open, but that wasn't the case.

Nobody made a sound as I opened the door and got a good look at Pyrrha. The champion laid in a bed with pale skin with many cuts and bruises lining what skin I could see. Switching quickly back to aura sight made her nearly invisible to me except for her soul. Hooked to her was a bag of liquids with electrolytes and a heart monitor. A second bag was on her other wrist and dripped slowly. Sedatives.

"What happened to her?" I asked with mock concern. Jaune glared at me from his seat next to Pyrrha. From the other side of the room I got the same treatment from Nora and Ren. "You did." Jaune told me.

"I meant how." I explained to him.

"It was sudden." Ren told me. "When she didn't show up for breakfast after telling us she was going to train, we didn't think anything of it. When she didn't show up for classes we got worried. When she missed lunch and didn't return our calls, then we went to find her. Nobody had used the simulation room since the morning, and we found her in there.

"Passed out I'm guessing." I stated. Jaune chuckled coldly.

"Yeah, no. I would have loved for that to be the case, but instead she had locked herself into the room and broke the handle off on the inside, jamming the door with it. We tried for at least half an hour to get her out, but she kept screaming that we wanted to hurt her, just like _you_ hurt her. She's afraid of the dark now, you know?" Jaune said, raising himself up before stopping and sitting back down.

"That was about the time we got the distress signal. We knew you probably needed help, but we made the call to stay. It wasn't an easy one, I hope your team knows that." Ren said. Jaune huffed and the room went silent for a time. They were all acting somewhat genteel to me at the time, but I could easily tell each of them were fighting back the impulse to lunge at me.

I'm usually up for making enemies more than you can understand, but this time it was starting to become a problem. You don't hate like this for a reason, and like it or not, I might have done permanent damage to Pyrrha. Things needed mending, and it was about time I fixed them before my own team started to distrust me. Blake was already halfway there.

"How do I fix this?" I asked, seeding some remorse and apology into my voice. Jaune looked up with a surprised face, apparently the last thing he expected to hear.

"Heal her. Make her better. Get her on her feet enough so that we can all settle this in the training room." Jaune spoke the first two calmly, but the third was dripping with venom. He slumped backwards into his chair. "To be honest, I'd gladly accept the first two." He said.

"I can give you three for three, if you'll let me." I said. Healing was not my strong suit by any means, but I knew enough of the inner workings of a soul to repair her like a machine.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Nora spoke quietly but angrily. You could feel the tension in her voice that said if I took a step towards Pyrrha I might not leave with all my limbs attached. Jaune held up his hand at her and looked me dead in the eyes. "Why should we let you? No. Why should we believe you have the ability to help her at all?" Jaune asked.

"Because you've already seen a lot of what I'm capable of. And, aside from killing her, there's not much more I can do to her, is there?" I argued. Jaune continued staring at me before he sighed and stood up, drawing his sword. I cocked my head in question with his two teammates and he gestured to Pyrrha. I calmly walked over to her pale body can placed my hands on her. One on her forehead and the other just below her neck. Right before I started to focus I felt the tip of Jaune's sword against my spinal cord.

"You kill her, you hurt her any more, hell if I even get the feeling something is going wrong, I will kill you in cold blood and feed your body to the Grimm." Jaune whispered to me. There was such an edge and malice to his voice that the human part of my body suppressed a shiver. I respected him a little after that. I truthfully believed that if she had even coughed the wrong way in her sleep that he would have severed my spine with that blade of his.

With the death threat hanging over me and the more slightly realistic threat of the Crocea Mors being able to cut through most things in my mind I focused my power and blended whatever functioned as a soul on my part with that of Pyrrha's. The edges of my vision darkened and all light in the room faded away until I saw Pyrrha's body with the slightest outline of aura. True to the medical statements she had almost none at all.

I pushed deeper and began to hear her heartbeat in my ears while her body faded from my view and I was left in a void. Except this isn't the sort of void where you feel alone. It felt like being in a room where someone was sleeping instead of an empty one. It put me on edge and stood the hair on the back of my neck upwards. Truthfully this was not because I was unnerved, but I was stressed. Meddling with a soul is precise and dangerous work, and even I knew the horror iin breaking one. Take it from me, that is a crime I would personally hunt someone down for if they managed it.

Eventually the heartbeat faded from my ears and other things began to become apparent. The sound of far off clashing metal and female yelping mixed with sobs was present. I also knew that for the first time I was unable to see in the darkness around me for more than a few inches. Wood paneling was under my feet was all that I could tell. If I strained myself I could see sparks and something resembling dull flashes in the direction of the noise.

With no other leads I started a brisk jog towards the noise. It was less far off than I thought as I was in the center of the noise within a dozen steps. I could not see anything still, but the source of heavy breathing fighting against sobs was near me to my right. The sparks also emanated from a select source. By straining myself once again I could tell the soft purple flashes appeared microseconds before the sparks. A flash happened and instead of a spark the barest hints of a red aura flared follow by slicing of flesh and another shriek that strengthened the sobs.

"Pyrrha?" I called out in the direction. A mistake. I now know the inner workings of a fractured mind are dangerous as I felt myself lurch forwards with a purple light embedded deep through my sternum. I tasted blood and fell to my knees. Why didn't my power block it? Why couldn't I feel or hear it coming? I could feel for the first time what it was like for life to be leaving you.

If this were a children's story I would say I never wanted to do that to another being in my existence. It was not a bad feeling though. For me it was not unlike easing into a bed much to cold for yourself and slowly warming while you drifted to sleep. Fortunately I did not accept the embrace and flared my energy around me. The intruding object burned away and I lit the area around me.

For all my effort I had maybe 15 feet of visibility. Inside it I saw Pyrrha next to me with her shield covering the majority of her body and various cuts over the rest of her extremities. She was crying, well and truly sobbing. She didn't seem to see me or notice the fact that there was visibility. Instead a purple flash happened and a metal impacted her shield. She flinched and attempted to crouch deeper into the floor for cover, and failed.

The metal I recognized. It was a more gnarled version of the blades I used on Pyrrha during the bout we had. This was the source of her mental scarring. As dramatic as it might seem, I was vaguely disappointed. Yes I had tried to terrify her, and yes I had managed to scare her into a momentarily catatonic state. But I had not done anything worthy of a full psychological breakdown.

I could have pulled her entrails out and healed her in the darkness, I could have shown her visions of her family and loved ones dying. I could have even revealed myself for the barest moments and filled her with such a fear that she would claw her own eyes out and stabbed her ears in to get away. But no, a simple defeat. A painfully one-sided battle with a little smoke and mirrors. I supposed that her mind was not as strong as a warrior's should be.

She was the champion after all, the prodigy. I don't doubt that true defeat was a stranger to her, let alone being so obviously toyed with in battle. But it still disgusted me. The fact that she had not clawed her way to the top, but had been standing there from the beginning on skill alone. The fact that she dared think she could save anyone in the world at all. The fact that she thought herself worthy of an honorable death.

So yes, I let my anger get away from me. My eyes turned a glowing purple and my skin almost translucent as I unconsciously shed away my first limitation. I was done with this situation. Despite the darkness feeling alien around me, I took hold and would not take 'no' for an answer. Like shattering glass the shadows fell onto the ground and disintegrated. Around the now well-lit classroom were empty chairs and floating blades.

Standing in front of me was another version of myself. A twisted visage of my current outfit merged with shredded robes and black smoke drifting off of his form. He held a version of my blade with feathered serrations sticking out an inch from the body, soaked in blood and bits of flesh. His eyes stood stark white against the shadow that hid his face, and frost creeped on the floor away from him. He was strong, I could feel it. Much stronger than Pyrrha, but still much weaker than me.

Two of the floating swords shot at me with a flick of his wrist. I was faster and held up my hand as my own power encompassed them. They stopped midair and shook violently before falling to pieces as well. Slowly I began walking towards my counterpart, more swords flinging themselves at me at increasingly high speeds. All of them were knocked out of the air by my power and shattered on the floor around me. If Pyrrha gave any indication that something had changed, she didn't show it.

The figure in front of me hissed as i was a few steps away and leapt towards me. His sword was poised at me and I caught the blade with my hand, the jagged serrations digging into my palm and drawing blood. As he tried to wrench the blade free I flexed my hand and cracked the front foot off the sword. It stepped backwards and I was on it before the thing had a chance to react.

"Die." I ordered, pushing enough power out of my hands to melt steel, while they were wrapped around his throat. Purple fire erupted from the figure and turned him to ash while his body struggled against me. The neck in my hands dissipated and I stood up. Pyrrha was no longer crouching with her shield raised and instead was in a meek combat stance pointed at me.

"Why?" She asked weakly. "Why go through all this if you were the one who hurt me in the first place?"

"Thank Ruby for that." I told her. Then I stared at her hard before speaking again. "Leave Beacon." I told her. She gave me a puzzled look and her sword arm faltered before dropping.

"Why would I leave Beacon?" She asked me. I gestured widely around me at the area we were in.

"You've literally become trapped in your own mind, on the brink of insanity, from a single defeat." I told her. "You might be able to fight well, and you might have lost a fight before, but you don't have the mental strength or stability to deal with a situation in which your opponent is beyond your ability in every way."

"I've been defeated before. I can-" Pyrrha tried to defend herself but I interrupted with a slightly raised voice.

"You weren't defeated. You were toyed with, made a mockery of. Hell, even tormented a bit. But you're the Mistrali Champion, yet untrained Jaune Arc held up better. I broke you with more ease than I should have been able to." I explained. She shook her head.

"That only means I should train more. I'm not broken. I'm not-" I interrupted again.

"Stop!" I yelled. "If I killed Jaune in front of you, what would happen?" I asked.

"I... I'd fight you, avenge him." She said, but she was unsure.

"You'd collapse. You're mind simply isn't built to take the stress your body is. You can kill Grimm. You can fight a human. Could you kill them? Could you leave someone to be eaten alive because you know it was for the greater good? Could you look them in the eyes as they begged for help, and then look the other way?" I asked her. She looked baffled by the brutality of my questions.

"I..." Pyrrha tried to form a thought, but we both knew anything she said to defend herself would be a lie.

"No." She finally said. "No, I couldn't."

"The world is cruel. Death is plentiful. Sometimes lives are traded, sometimes they are wasted. Many battles have been won simply by throwing enough bodies at the problem. If you can't make those kinds of calls, move out of the way for someone who can. Otherwise you'll just make it worse as you try to preserve the bedtime story you call life." I told her.

The warrior was silent for a time as she looked at the ground, the room, her weapons, and some things I couldn't see. A decision was made, obvious by a slight shift in her eyes. "I'm not leaving." She said.

"What makes you think you have the choice, no, the right to stay?" I asked, slightly angered and surprised by her defiance. She glowered at me from behind her sweat and blood streaked red heair.

"If I can't make the call, then I'll be a body to throw at the problem." She said. Her voice held shreds of conviction not born of pride, but understanding where she belonged in the world. I clapped ni movkery.

"How noble." I said, and pushed the dream apart with my power. The room blew apart into dust and the last thing left was our eyes glaring at each other.


	26. Chapter 26

All at once I was awake inside my own body again. The heart monitor beeped in my ear and the stale air of the hospital filled my lungs. Jaune's sword was no longer positioned on my neck, but I felt his presence still in the room.

My eyes opened and I found myself still glaring into Pyrrha's own green eyes. She looked tired, but now entirely sane. With her eyes opened I was roughly shoved out of the way as her team crowded around her and were generally happy and caring. Tears were shed, hugs were given. I waited patiently to see if Jaune and his team still wanted a four on one fight. Patient as I was however, I interrupted the show after about three minutes.

"Hey." I said loudly. Jaune gave me a look along with the rest of them. "Are we all fighting now, or can I leave?" I asked. Jaune looked between his other three members before answering.

"I don't think Pyrrha will be up to that yet." Jaune answered. His rage seemed to have faded, and made me wonder how long I had been inside Pyrrha's head. Pyrrha however slowly grabbed Jaune's hand and pulled herself to a sitting position. The aura rating on another monitor next to her was slowly filling.

"I'll need an hour." She said, and pulled out the saline drip from her arm. She started on the heart monitors, but likely decided not to give the nurses a scare. "An hour and a half. I feel it will take some time for them to let me out." She surmised.

"I'll be there." I told them and left the room. It was late when we came to the hospital wing, but now the clock read 2:35. The windows told me that it was still dark, so I must have been out for quite some time. My team was asleep, and probably for the better. I left for the training room.

It was at the opposite side of the school and the walk would have normally given me time to think, but I currently had no thoughts. A vague disappointment mixed with odd surprise and a twinge of encouragement lingered in the back of my head.

My plans for the school had no obvious next steps as I continued to wait for the Vytal Festival and Amity Coliseum. Cinder had given me no more reports of importance other than her own detailed plans of the tournament. I was impressed at her plans, but slightly put off at her enthusiasm towards it all. Still, none of it was worth the thoughts.

Thoughts about Blake and my promise to train her floated through my mind. She had drive and reasons to get better, but I still had very little idea as to how I could make her better. Two ideas floated in my mind. One would be of little effect, and the other would be dangerous.

The first one was quite simple, and she had already started on her own. Using dust to enhance her clones could give variety and an unpredictable edge. This would work doubly so If I could increase her controlling capabilities to that of Sun, and increase her aura levels.

The second was a fickle and powerful thing. The Focal Point. You've probably heard of it in lenses and light manipulation, but it is something different in combat. The two strongest emotions are anger and sadness.

Anger initiates adrenaline, makes the brain move faster, and gives more drive than anything else, but makes you sloppy. Sadness crushes the body and mind, but if overcome will push someone to never have to experience it again. Sadness also makes you able to look at things more clearly, and make your next decision with full coherence. In short, they contradict and help each other.

The Focal Point is a combination of blinding rage and crushing sadness, both perfectly balanced in your mind and body. It will allow you to fight at all times with the same strength that only comes from immediate life or death situations, or fighting for family.

There are two problems. One, to use it someone must have had a life hard enough that they can experience both of these emotions at their strongest, while still retaining the ability to feel them and the mental stability to control them.

I had no doubt that Blake could do this, but the second worried me. Reaching a focal point has unintended effects on the mind. On one of my experiments before Beacon I pushed someone to unlock theirs, and they instantly snapped into attacking. The problem is that they retain the strength of the focal point, making them dangerous to the opponent and themselves.

Unfortunately it seemed the only viable choice as Blake's semblance looked to be too specific to evolve. We would work on it soon, but not today. She needed more discipline, and starting too early could be catastrophic.

It looked like I did have a decent amount of thoughts to organize and I had made my way over to the training hall just as my train of thoughts stopped. There were no clashing swords or the reports of guns. It was much too late. I had the training room entirely to myself.

It wasn't much more than thirty or forty minutes before the newly reformed JNPR stood in front of me in full combat gear. I scanned their faces. Jaune had hatred spread across his face, Ren and Nora looked tired but ready. Pyrrha herself was oddly blank.

"You all still certain of this? It won't be easy. You'll probably lose." I told them. Jaune cracked a small grin that probably would have terrified some people and made a few kids cry. You know what it looks like. The type of smile that says 'solitary confinement is my favorite room'.

They each gave me their confirmation and I slowly drew my sword and held it lazily at my side. Looking at ease often unnerves the enemy. If it did then JNPR gave no notice. They each slowly drew their weapons and pointed them at me. Ren fell into an altered boxing stance. Jaune raised his shield at me with the sword tip in the same direction. Pyrrha mirrored him and Nora held her hammer with one hand behind her, the head on the floor.

To start things off I tapped the floor twice with my sword. On the second tap I felt almost immediately that the sword would not move again. Pyrrha was holding it in place while Jaune rushed me and Nora switched to her grenade launcher. The battle began.

Jaune's first strike fell to the side as I kicked his sword out of the way. In a movement of skill he carried through and bashed me with his shield. I let go of my own weapon and flipped backwards, narrowly avoiding the first explosive pill.

Jaune swung around again and I summoned a small shield to block it. Heavy pinpricks from Ren set the ground around my feet into ice. I ducked under Jaune's next swing and threw a punch at him. The blow bounced off his aura, but stunned him enough for me to break one of my feet out.

I didn't need to break the second out as Nora impacted my chest with her large hammer. A good deal of anger was suddenly breaking the surface of her composure. When Nora had rushed me earlier she had still been holding back.

I bounced roughly off the wall behind me and attempted to bring my sword to me. It did not listen. Pyrrha was still holding it down to the floor. With three attackers I did not have the time to overpower her semblance.

Ren was flying at me when I regained my footing. He brought down both of his blades in a cross chop. I responded in kind by blocking with my palms. Without missing a beat Ren wrenched sideways and clipped the right side of my head with both hooks of his weapons. They had been training, and I had underestimated how much better they had gotten.

Ren jumped back when Nora yelled for him. I summoned a shield to block the next pill.

"Rebound!" Jaune yelled. Nora's aim switched to her teammate and she fired. The pill bounced off his shield and behind mine, exploding between me and it. She fired another and I caught the pill, crushing it in my hand and containing the pink explosion.

A moment of respite gained, I called for my sword a second time, pushing power into it. Jaune saw the opportunity and took it as Ren returned with him. I let go and heard Pyrrha grunt as the pressure removed from her semblance.

Jaune attacked first once again, but I was done playing around. I caught Crocea Mors in my hand and wrenched the blade from him. A heavy right hook caught him in the jaw and he staggered backwards. I ignored Ren's proximity and launched myself at him.

A bullet hit me in the side and threw me off. Knowing Pyrrha's concentration was shifted I quickly called my blade for the third time. It moved without hesitation and fell smoothly into my grasp. Using a finger on my left hand I shot a small bead of condensed power at Pyrrha. It passed through her raised shield and impacted her in the center of the head. It was a heavy bead and was specifically made.

The second it impacted a loud shrieking filled the room for a few seconds. Jaune, Nora, and Ren covered their ears, but Pyrrha dropped to the ground in pain. Her aura would protect her from the worst of it, but her focus and hearing would be broken for at least a few seconds.

Everyone else was off guard, so I began attacking. I chose an animalistic style I had learned from consuming the soul of an old waste lander. My strike looked like it would pierce Jaune, and he prepared for this. I dove the tip of the blade into the ground and swung myself low around him and jumped into a spin, slashing at the base of his back where the chest plate ended. He turned and I uppercut him with a summoned stake that tossed him up off is feet.

In my hands I changed the stake into a crossbow and fired a bolt at Ren. He rolled to avoid it and I brought my blade down onto him. His aura rippled as he shouted in pain. I lifted and spun around in a sweeping motion. My sword clanged off something and vibrated almost painfully.

Pyrrha, eyes clouded and disoriented, had blocked my strike in a crouched position. As I took in the impressiveness of her new drive I felt a painful sting. She had fired her spear into my abdomen and it had pierced my aura slightly. I expected nothing less. I hated her, but her weapons were masterfully made, and the edge was perfectly sharpened.

Nora screamed and bashed my right leg in, and I buckled without a choice. She followed through and hammered me again. I pivoted off the spear tip, which only drove it deeper, and flew over Pyrrha. The tip was now at least three inches into my body, close to stabbing some vital organs that humans can't live without.

As I stood up the spear wrenched itself out and flew back to Pyrrha. Her eyes lingered briefly at the blood on her blade. I was tempted to remove my first limitation, but I was actually enjoying this. I can only assume my smile was more of a 'mental institutions are VERY fun' image.

I cast my metal sword aside and summoned two broadswords two work with. I attacked first out of the brief pause. Halfway to closing the distance a line of fire spread across my chest. My shirt was ripped. Jaune was using projected aura slices. I ducked under the next and came up in a swooping motion at Pyrrha. She blocked and Ren countered, digging his weapons into my shoulders and throwing me into the wall once more.

I ducked under his next swing and tackled him into the floor, using the momentum to get closer to Jaune. His swings rippled the air as I dodged, getting closer each time. He attacked, I ducked, and sliced deeply into his side with one of my swords.

I watched him buckle before I swept upwards with the flat of my blade and launched him away from me. Facial scars caused by me would give the wrong ideas. Footsteps echoed behind me and I turned around in time to clash blades with Pyrrha. Her eyes flashed dangerously dark for a brief moment and I felt the most intriguing pain of my life. The blood in my heart pulsed against natural motion and refused to move.

Icy fire spread from my chest as she sliced me in the torso and kicked me away. The pressure relived and I saw her slump slightly. That was dangerous, and very satisfyingly dark. To control someone's blood was oddly deranged for her. Maybe I put the pieces of her mind together wrong.

While on the floor I rolled to the side as Nora tried to crush me. Ren peppered me with bits of fire that singed my shirt and skin. Before Jaune recovered, I needed to get rid of someone. I looked Nora in the eyes and smiled as I raised my arm. A blast of purple hellfire cascaded across her upper body. She stumbled back while screaming and I kicked up onto my feet.

"Nora!" Pyrrha shouted her name in concern while Ren turned to me and loaded new clips. The bullets he fired were less pricks and more punches. I was driven back with my feet dug into the ground. He was using gravity dust. I shouldered myself out of the stream of bullets and rushed him.

My swords had gotten lost when I fell, but I summoned a large hammer not unlike Nora's and struck Ren's jaw. His eyes went white and he slumped to the ground. One down.

Nora stared at me with burns on her face and her orange hair melted to her skin. She only looked more pissed off. "Pyrrha, light me up." She said. The champion shifted her weapon at Nora and fired three rounds from a separate clip and knocked Nora down. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded.

At least I was, until I saw sparks and she got up glowing with aura. Lightning transmuted into power for her. She fluidly switched to her launcher and fired a pill at the ground, flinging herself at me. Midair she switched to her hammer and I raised my arms.

The resulting clash was second in force only to Oobleck's last ditch effort. I flew back into the wall that was at least thirty feet away. She wasn't done. I heard another shift of metal and an explosion. With the composure I had I rolled out of the way. Her hammer head dug into the near indestructible wall. I reared back and punched her head into the wall. She yelped and I did it again, aiming for the temple.

I kept smashing until the rippled of aura no longer appeared, and then once more for good measure, and to knock her unconscious. At this point Jaune and Nora had almost made it to me. I looked at them with arms outstretched.

The anger in his eyes now was even greater than before. He jumped to attack me and I caught his sword in my hands, drawing blood. For the second time I threw it away. He leaned over as I punched him in the stomach. I spun and kicked him in the back and he fell to the floor.

My last punch cracked off his shield as he raised it quickly. Annoyed, I grabbed and pulled. He screamed in pain and Pyrrha shouted in concern. The leather strapping broke with most likely a few muscle tendons.

I dropped to my knees over him and punched him in the mouth. His aura rippled and I swung again. And again. I did not stop when I saw blood. I did not stop when his aura went out. I did not stop when I dug a shard of tooth out of my knuckle. I stopped when I smelled ozone.

If you don't know what that means, the smell of ozone, or more likely burning air, is the smell before a rainstorm caused by lightning. We were indoors. It was clear outside. I looked over to Pyrrha and her green eyes had turned black with her semblance, and she almost absorbed the light around her. She had a tear running down her cheek and more rage than I've ever seen in a person. I knew the look. She reached her Focal Point, and I was about to pay the price.

The air shifted, and a general feeling of absolute danger and wrongness filled me. I readied whatever defense I could as everything exploded and I felt my world turn into pain. Light filled my eyes, then everything was dark.

It was worse than the railgun. Worse than the golem Grimm tearing my chest apart. My ears rung and I couldn't see. I tasted blood and smelled smoke. I was probably lying on the floor, or maybe whatever happened destroyed the floor. Through the haze of pain my mind began to theorize.

She had power over magnets, but that also meant magnetic fields. I knew altering those could do some very interesting things to matter and create vast amounts of energy. What I didn't know is if it was possible to rip the atoms around you apart and set of a runaway reaction. It must have been. Few other things could have done this to me.

Soon light began to peek through my eyelids, and I realized they were closed. My skin cracked slightly when I opened them. The white tile of the training room, a material meant to withstand the ballistic semblances of dozens of students, was shattered and burnt in a small circle.

I could see this because I had somehow become slumped against the wall on the opposite side of the room. Before I tried to move, I took in my surroundings with just my eyes. Pyrrha was in the center of the circle of burned and broken tiles. Possible alive. Likely dead.

Jaune was out of my view, but likely damaged from being just as close to the blast as me. Nora and Ren were thrown against the wall perpendicular to me, a small puddle of blood forming under Ren.

The ringing in my ears faded and I realized that there was a very real ringing also sounding. Some sort of alarm was going off. A thought crossed my mind. I was already on thin ice with some people, and on the edge of suspicion with my team.

People could think I caused this. I needed to prove them wrong. I needed to be helping. I needed to be _saving them._ My skin cracked and my charred clothes broke into rags. I stood up. The pain was unbelievable and I forced as much power through me as I could with my focus, all in an attempt to heal myself.

Looking probably like a ghoul of some sort, I shuffled across the room towards Pyrrha, glancing behind me to see Jaune in similar condition to me. Unconscious. Possibly dead. I lurched another step towards Pyrrha, halfway there.

The closer I got the worse she looked. Her armor had blackened and melted in parts. Her skin was similar in looks, red and black. The symbolic red hair of the Mistrali Champion was a melted and matted mess. I stood over her and focused. Pain ebbed back as I tried to feel the presence of the souls around me.

There were four in the room, one fading. I didn't bother to check which one. There was a large group of other auras heading towards the room. I shut my mind to it and refocused on strength. Slowly I picked up Pyrrha and slung her over my shoulder. I had to keep up appearances. Luckily my healing was starting to take effect. I headed for the door.

The lights in the room were flickering while I made my way to the door. Almost there I saw the doors spring open and a team of medics, teachers, and a few students were behind it. Glynda, Ozpin, and Port were among them. Some nurses rushed passed me and two of them took Pyrrha off my shoulders and into a stretcher.

I turned around to go help before Ozpin grabbed my shoulder. My skin burned at the contact and he took his hand away. I sat on the floor and leaned against the door frame. "You've helped all you can. Leave it to the professionals, and take this." Ozpin told me, and handed me a small syringe. Morphine.

Though the pain was fading, I injected it into my leg anyways. The reaction was an almost immediate dulling of my senses and the near complete fading of the pain. Ozpin crouched down and looked at me.

"Can you walk yourself to the infirmary?" He asked. I nodded. "Good. I'll be over in the morning to get some answers. Try and rest." He told me. I nodded again and stood up. My burned clothes crunched more as I walked.

Medics ran past me wheeling all members of Team JNPR past me. I got a glance at Ren. He had a large piece of tile lodged into his side from the blast. Nora seemed only badly burned, but Jaune was strangely unharmed, comparatively. This was especially interesting considering he was the closest to the epicenter.

When I made it to the infirmary, more to rest than anything else, I was accommodated by an amateur nurse, a new shot of morphine should I need it, and a hospital gown that I refused. My bed had water next to it and I drank it in one sitting.

The pain was mostly fading and my remaining power was working on healing my burns and bruises. The situation around me was apparently much less relaxed. Nurses and more qualified medics ran to and from ER's and OR's that the JNPR members were based in.

My own team visited come morning and helped convince the nurses to discharge me. I would have left for classes anyway, but less conflict meant less difficulty. They let me go after realizing my injuries had healed to a superficial level and that I could walk.

My team had their questions. What happened? Are you alright? Are _they_ alright? I explained how I had helped heal Pyrrha with little detail, focusing more on telling them how my intentions were to make amends. I told them that JNPR picked the fight with me and that I accepted.

The brutalizing of Jaune was toned down so that I would receive less dirty looks. The explanation for Pyrrha's explosion was halfhearted, but I eyed Blake enough for her to know I would explain more to her specifically.

We checked on JNPR before leaving. Jaune was sitting in bed and eyed me suspiciously, but with considerably less hatred and anger than before, or maybe he was just tired. Nora was unconscious but stable. The real situations came from Pyrrha and Ren.

As I said before, Ren was unfortunate enough to have a large piece of shattered training tile lodge into his sternum area. At least I thought it was shattered. Turns out most of the tile remained intact and dug _deep_ into him. We were not allowed to see him, but were informed that the tile missed his heart by just one centimeter, and that he was being operated on.

Pyrrha was stuck into a recovery aura pod. She showed no signs of aura at all aside from questionable readings on the monitors and slow healing due to the pod itself. She was stable. Things became more peculiar when the readings also showed that instead of her brainwaves slowing and decreasing in number, they were remaining well into the levels one would experience wide awake in combat.

I chalked that up to another theory in my head that would have to be confirmed or denied later. My team walked with me back to the dorms and I laid down to sleep, excused from today's classes. Drugs still floated in my blood and I had been awake the entire night. I didn't care enough to burn the morphine out of my system. It was pleasantly warm after all.

In my sleep I healed myself entirely and bounced around the theory that Pyrrha might still mentally be in the Focal Point, even unconscious. This could either be dangerous and she would be a time bomb, or she was learning. The second one gave the same feeling in my stomach that you would experience before skydiving. Ensuing fun with lingering danger.

I woke up at night and caught the dinner rush. Ruby and Yang had gone off to train and Weiss was doing maintenance to her weapon in the forge. I found Blake in the corner of the loud cafeteria with tuna and tea, reading one of her books.

I grabbed some random food myself and sat down. I needed to explain both what happened to Pyrrha, and that the same thing would happen to her if she wanted to get stronger.

"Hello Darren." Blake said blankly without looking up.

"Do you want to know what actually happened to Pyrrha?" I asked. Her eyes came off the book quickly and she closed it with a bookmark, a sign that she was actually going to listen, not tolerate my words.

"During our fight, I pushed all of them, as combat would. While she stayed back according to plan I attacked her teammates, people she cared about. Even when she joined in I excluded her and focused solely on them." I started.

"Testing her reaction, or having a bit of fun?" Blake asked, slightly angry. I sighed.

"A little of both, but mostly testing. I'll admit that I was a little less than gentle with Jaune, and perhaps pushed her too far." I said.

Blake looked skeptically at me. "So she exploded? I saw the aftermath in the training room."

"Yes," I answered plainly, "but it isn't that simple. I pushed her into something called the Focal Point. Many semblances and almost all aura are influenced by emotions. The Focal Point is the balance between rage and sadness, or misery." I explained to her.

"So the mind turns into overdrive, adrenaline releases, and all restraints are off. Am I getting the picture?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yes. It forces the body and mind to react in a last ditch effort state, usually resulting in some barriers being crossed and the body sometimes not being able to hold up. As for what happened, think about what Pyrrha's semblance is, and what that can do if the scales are tipped to strongly." I said. Blake got a thoughtful look before her eyes went wide.

"She could rip atoms apart, right? A runaway reaction." She said. I nodded.

"I told you I would train you, make you stronger. The problem is that your semblance is very linear with not so many possibilities. I don't think I can evolve it the way I can the others." I told her.

"So you want to push me over that edge and what, see how the dice roll? What if it kills me like it almost did to Pyrrha?" Blake asked.

"That's the risk. It's also the reason I chose different routes for the others. I don't think their minds or bodies could take the stress without collapsing or losing control. You on the other hand have had a hard enough life to gain discipline. I think you could do it, and the results would be more than you ever thought possible. What do you say?" I asked. I knew she would say yes, I could see it in her eyes.

"Fine. When do we start?" Blake asked.

"Now. Finish your food and we'll head to the rooftops. I think the training room will be off limits for some time." Blake nodded and re-opened her book, reading while she finished. Behind the nonchalance of those actions though, I could see unease festering. Her eyes didn't move across the pages, and none were turned in the ten minutes we took to eat.


	27. Chapter 27

**Howdy. Finally entering Volume 3, so we can all enjoy that. Also, not dead yet.**

Weiss had nearly mastered runes by now. Elements and actions now bent under her control easily and she could combine some of them at will. It made some of our sparring matches interesting as Ruby, Blake, and Yang had to work around the runes as well as her glyphs.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Blake's training was going slow. That's not to say it wasn't working, because it was, but other things were coming up. Necessary preparations for the Vytal tournament and our first round this weekend took time away from us, mostly because each session left Blake physically drained, and infinitely more so mentally.

The first time I had tried pushing her into the Focal Point ended abruptly as she collapsed from mental strain. She seemed fine at first, if tense. She had relaxed and kneeled facing away as I placed my hands over her temples to access memories and emotions. There wasn't much digging to do when it came for hardships. Just beneath the emotions and memories of her time at Beacon, her life seemed a warzone.

My mind caught a few flying images as I pushed deeper. Faunus ridiculing, friends being killed or hurt, abandonment. " _Not sharp enough",_ I thought. I had been able to feel her breath hitch and her muscles tighten in the back of her neck as the mental notions forced their way into her brain, becoming her only thoughts.

The worst pain comes from the things that we hide from ourselves, things we don't want to accept, or things we push back because they are simply too painful. Doubts and the truth. I dug and dug, and my metaphorical fingers traced over something that burned like fire. Two images flashed in my mind. A couple, one large man and a smaller woman, both in black, both faunus. The second was a man with red hair and a mask. He looked angry, betrayed. The couple looked sad. I could only assume a relative of some sort. Parents by the age of them.

As I touched over the images Blake made a broken sound and collapsed, falling away from my hand and severing the mental connection. Now on her hands and knees I I couldn't see her face. On the grave roof her tears fell freely while her hands gripped the rocks hard enough to start bleeding. She heaved sobs for a few moments as her composure slowly returned.

That was the reaction I was looking for. Absolute denial and shutdown. Her mind couldn't cope with facing those realities yet. But I would make it. Right now though, she needed to recover. In my experimentation I had learned that continuously pushing someone too fast only earned a permanent depression or hollow state. So I waited for Blake to stop crying and get up. This was sadness, but the other memory was anger, if a scared kind.

I watched closely when Blake's hands stopped shaking and clutching at the rocks. Then in a flash she reeled on me and I blocked a punch with my forearm. Her eyes were wild and red as she tried again to hit me. I grabbed her arms and pinned them against her sides. "Why?!" She yelled.

She struggled against my grip for only a second or two before yelling at me again. "Why that?! Why did you have to choose that?!" She asked. I kept her arms pinned despite her fading resistance. I stared her down and spoke calmly and firmly.

"You asked for this. You agreed to this. Only your worst memories and experiences can incite the emotions we need." I reasoned. She stared at me back for a few seconds before falling forward, now being supported by me. My shoulder became wet with her tears and I fought the instinct to push her off of me. Rampant emotions. Such fickle things humans are.

Another minute passed before she finally began to gain composure. We climbed slowly back into the dorm and agreed that we would keep pushing every other night. The same results occurred each time we tried, her becoming hysterical again mere moments after I touched upon the two images. This only continued for three more sessions before the tournament became too near to risk her mental state. The last session was tonight, and I only hoped I could push her far enough. I would not have another opportunity to make her a worthy opponent.

The tournament itself was an interesting debate settled by Ozpin. The usual procedure was to split the team in half twice and vote on who moved forwards into the double and single matches. A compromise was made. RWBY would fight as a unit of four versus another team. Then we had two decisions. I could either fight solo in the second round against two opponents, or against one in the final. I ended up choosing the later.

My reasons for facing off against just one opponent was simple. The tournament was coinciding with Cinder's plans and I decided that I would make my move at the culmination of all the kingdom's hopes and festivities. Until then, I just had to wait and keep myself from being found out. Security and Atlas intrusion rose as the tournament neared.

"Hey, Darren?" Ruby asked to get my attention during breakfast. I looked up.

"With everything you've taught all of us I think we're in a good position for the tournament, but do you have anything else you'd want to show us before we go in?" She asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing I can teach in less than a week. Train well and rest. Don't push too hard before the tournament starts. We _do_ want to win, after all." I told her. Yang and her nodded in agreement and finished their food. Weiss read silently from a booklet of runes I had written down to help her memorize them all. Blake did not read, and sulked slightly in silence. The rest of the team said nothing because I had explained the emotional effects of her training.

"How's JNPR doing?" Ruby asked to nobody in particular. Weiss closed the book to answer her.

"Jaune and Nora recovered quite nicely from what I heard. Pyrrha has been requested to stay off training until the day before the tournament, if Ren's condition allows them to participate. He's healed well from his time in the aura chambers, but it's the nurses' call." Weiss answered.

"Oh, I hope they can fight." Ruby said with a pouting face and took her tray up. Yang and Weiss followed her and left me with Blake again. I had nothing to say right now and let her mentally prepare for the rest of the day. Classes were cancelled on account of a signal issue after an Atlas ship flew over and broke one of the satellite dishes on the roof.

My location was the emerald forest, then the Lock Box. I had yet report on the Lock-Box for quite some time, mostly because figuring out how to open the glass boxes without tripping an alarm of some kind. Eventually I had no other options but to hope my voice authentication from mimicking Ozpin had disabled the alarm, and broke one of the boxes. The box itself was very sturdy and shattered loudly, but nothing happened. Fearing a silent alarm, I had waited for a few hours before deciding there was no danger.

The rest of my time had been spread out by relocating various items and inspecting them for trackers. In my locker I currently held the three belts of fire, earth, and gravity dust grenades. Crocea Armis was hidden underground in another locker that was surprisingly stolen from the school, ripped from the very foundation. I still debated on giving that to Jaune, but I wanted my options close.

The two large devices, being the Reactionary Bomb and Railgun were painstakingly moved out of the Lock Box. When I say painstakingly, I mostly meant the railgun. You see, the railgun itself was much larger than the one-person door I had entered from. The warhead for the bomb was also slightly large than myself, but I managed to squeeze that down the corridor until I felt it safe enough to work my way to the surface.

Being unable to bring the warhead with me in astral form, I was forced to slowly tunnel through the foot thick steel and half mile of rock and dirt. This took the larger part of two weeks so I didn't cause any cave-ins. Currently the warhead was positioned at the base of Beacon Cliffs with another chute tunneled near the center of vale. That all brought me to the end of the semester and the beginning of this one.

The next month I spent carefully learning all that I could about the Railgun, knowing very well that I'd have to dismantle it. After a week combing Beacon's library and the local Archives, I found nothing aside from a brief mention in a book of possible weaponry, and it was written by a conspiracy theorist. I was forced to take a short trip to Atlas in order to procure some information from some people that _technically_ didn't exist. I'll detail that expedition soon, as it was quite fun.

The trip was excused by a letter sent by myself detailing a family emergency, granting a week out because of the distance to my 'home' in the Ice Fangs. Once I returned with detailed blueprints and other manifests of the Railgun, I spent all the time until now dismantling the railgun and bringing pieces through the tunnel into a large, ancient clock tower in Vale. Coincidentally, it was quite close to where I had left the Reactionary Bomb underground.

My job still wasn't over yet, and I was running out of time. Cinder was the brain on her side of the operation, but the ice cream colored girl who stabbed Yang was also quite clever. Cinder made her start helping me dismantle the gun recently. There was a small freak-out on her part as she had recognized me, but we came into agreement when she realized we had similar intentions. And I offered her the Topaz Dagger as payment, but she also took all the books within the Dark Archives. She explained with many hand motions and sticky notes that she had a thing for hidden history and knowledge.

Together we had removed a large portion of the barrel, all of the dust cores, and the frontal support and aiming mechanism. The large wheeled base and firing mechanism remained. It was quite an intricate piece of machinery, and the computers is what gave us trouble.

I sent a message for her to meet me once again at the Lock-Box and jumped off the cliff after informing Cinder of our progress. It kept her from nagging at me. This was becoming a chore and I found little enjoyment in the wind rushing past me. While gliding I saw Neo's small White Fang rover driving through the forest. It was brought for transporting parts in the trailer attached. We met silently at the entrance I had tunneled out and slid down.

Another hard few hours of complicated work ensued. Neo pickpocketed some of my vodka that I carried while we worked, and I let her. She had quite the tolerance for someone so small. It was nice being around someone who didn't talk. Mostly we communicated through grunts on my part and slams on hers, with lots of finger pointing. She was by far the least complicated and fickle human I had met so far.

After filling the trailer with a load that contained almost all of the remaining computers and electronics, we drove to the base of Beacon Cliffs and I spent time until sunset hauling parts up into the sewers and into the clock tower. There I had left two of the smartest White Fang members to reassemble the weapon with copies of the blueprints. Neo left to head back to base and I stopped for a new bottle of drink before making my way to the school.

The detective Atlas POI robots still buzzed around, but considerably less. They ignored me completely as my human face was completely scrubbed from their system. I would not register if they scanned me, so they did nothing. I made my way to the school and then the rooftops at sundown. Blake was waiting for me.

"How long you been there?" I asked her as she stared off into the horizon.

"Long enough to have gotten some thinking done." Blake said, then took a deep breath. "We're out of time, so I need you to do something for me."

"What's that?" I questioned, not really expecting a request to come from her.

"Don't stop. I don't care if I collapse of scream or claw at your arms until my fingers a bloody, I need you to push me over the edge." She said. I could see that while she did mean it, she was scared at what might happen. I didn't particularly care about her fear or pain, I just needed confirmation to do so.

"Alright. Kneel down." I told her, just as I had her do every other time. I stood behind her and entered her mind. She was tense and I could feel the fear like a stagnant liquid in her mind. I didn't bother combing around this time and went immediately for her most painful realizations and memories.

Immediately I felt her weight shift forward, but this time I held her still. I shoved the memories to the surface roughly, and gained the full story. The man with red hair, a former love turned betrayer. A man she had once looked up to becoming the main reason humanity hated faunus. Her anger and betrayal pushed against her mind. She screamed and grabbed me. True to her predictions, I felt her nails bite into my skin.

The man and woman. Her parents. Her biggest regret was leaving them, leaving the White Fang, even to an extent, leaving Adam. That was his name. She felt she betrayed them all. Part of her thought of going back, another part of her worried that they wouldn't accept her. A voice in the back of her head feared what Adam would do.

I knew her tears were flowing freely as her grip tightened and she scratched against my arms and struggled. I pushed harder against her mind, and felt a sensation like glass breaking. Exactly what I was looking for. Suddenly I found two painfully strong grips on my arms and wrenched them backwards. My power wasn't readied in any kind of defense and my skin pierced as two katanas were stabbed through my feet, rooting me to the rooftop. I yelled in pain, but it was overshadowed by Blake falling to her hands and knees and wailing in agony.

More clones appeared around me. Two swords stabbed through my chest and I felt a heeled boot in my back. Before I lost my chance I wrenched one arm free and pushed the blades deeper into my chest as I strained towards Blake. This was a deep pain, but still better than having the muscles torn from the bone.

I grasped the back of Blake's head in my hand and forced a clarity into her mind enough to understand me. "Focus! Don't lose this feeling. This is your focal point. You must remember it." I told her. Two more swords stabbed through the back of my legs and I finally thought to ready a defense before they hit something vital.

"Blake, stop." I said, before being cut off by the pressure of a sword at my throat, my power just barely keeping the blade from breaking the skin. That made ten clones that were all being summoned and controlled simultaneously. She had never managed to keep two or three going for even half as long.

With my still free hand I clenched the sword and broke the blade. The sharp sound seemed to bring Blake partially out of her stupor as the clones stopped tugging me backwards and digging the swords deeper. I was bleeding profusely, and my human body was starting to feel lightheaded. I focused power into blood regeneration. Breathing was also getting difficult. I think one of the clones scraped their sword against one of my lungs. I know I could feel the left one tugging at my ribcage.

"Blake." I wheezed, coughing up a bit of blood. Damned human capillaries. "Control yourself." The clone's movement stayed halted for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry." Blake whispered, but I knew it wasn't entirely directed at me. Suddenly the four intruding swords retracted painfully from my flesh and all the clones slowly converged within Blake as she stood up and faced me. Her yellow eyes were blazing like small suns with her pupils partially dilated. My legs buckled, a large portion of controlling muscle having been severed.

Almost before I had time to fall I felt two pairs of arms hoist me up from either side. A Blake on either side of me held my weight while I closed my wounds and focused on hacking until my half-filled was empty. Once I finished I looked up and stood on my own feet. The clones disappeared, absorbing back into her body before four more appeared alongside her. They stood shoulder to shoulder.

"Blake?" I asked. She slowly drew her sword and held it point out at me. I readied myself as she swung, and all her clones mirrored the movement. But the blade stopped just short of me. She shook her head and readied for another. This time all of her clones swung at random directions, each acting on their own. I watched her eyes brighten slightly as each clone turned and sparred against its counterpart, each pair using different moves.

She blinked and each clone delivered a killing blow to the other, and they dissipated. I watched her pupils shrink to normal size and her eyes lose their luster. The discipline she already had over her focal point amazed me, but I suppose she was the most mentally disciplined of the four. "Thank you." She said, before stumbling slightly.

I caught her shoulder, prepared for her to have passed out, but she righted herself slowly and moved to sit by the edge. She faced off into the skyline again, and I heard a small sniffle. "Go inside Darren. I need some time to think."

I silently rappelled down the windows and swooped inside. Everyone in the room was awake, obviously having heard Blake screaming. I held up my hands and explained to them all that she was fine. The training was a success, and that nobody would be able to beat us in the tournament.

 **Quick message. I WILL be finishing this story, but then I will have a hiatus that will probably last until September. Next chapter will be shorter, but will detail Darren's trip to Atlas.**


End file.
